/ 


BV  4526  .L7  1870 

Loyson,  Charles  Jean  Marie, 

1827-1912. 
The  family  and  the  church 


By  tlie  saine  PTj."blisliers. 


DISCOURSES  ON  VARIOUS  OCCASIONS, 

BY  THE  REVEREND 

FATHEK    HYACINTHE. 

TRANSLATED  BY 

L.    W.     BACON. 

With  a  Biograpliical  Sketch.,  and  a  Portrait  on  Steal 
12mo,  cloth,  $1.25 


THE     FAMILY 


AND 


THE   CHURCH. 


Advent    Conferences    of   Notre-Dame,    Paris, 
1866-7, 1868-9. 


BY  THE  KEVEREND 

FATHER  HYAOINTHE, 

Late  Superior  of  the  Barefooted  Carmelites  of  Paris. 


7 


EDITED    BT 

LEONARD  WOOLSEY  BACON. 


WITH   AN   INTRODUCTION   BY   JOHN   BIGELOW,  ESQ., 
Late  Minister  of  the  United  States  at  the  Court  of  Vrance. 


NEW  YORK : 
G.    P.    PUTNAM    &     SOK, 

LONDON:  S.  LOW,  SON  &  MARSTON. 
1870. 


Entered  accordinfr  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1870, 

By  G.  p.  PUTNAM  &  SON, 

In  the   Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of    the  United   States   for  the 

Southern  District  of  New  York. 


Edition  Authorized  by  Father  Hyacinthe. 


Stereotyped  by  Little,  Renme  &  Co.,  prlss  of 

645  and  C47  Broadway,  N.  Y.  The  New  York  Printing  Company, 

81,  83,  and  85  Centre  St.,  N.  Y. 


PEEFAOE 


The  two  volumes  of  Father  Hjacinthe's  Discourses, 
of  wMcli  this  is  the  second,  contain,  together,  v/ith  one 
insignificant  exception,  everything  that  has  been  writ- 
ten or  revised  by  him  for  publication. 

In  addition,  we  give  herewith  the  rough  and  unre- 
vised  reports  of  his  last  series  of  "  Conferences"  at  Notre 
Dame,  on  The  Church.  In  reading  them  no  small  regret 
will  be  felt  at  finding  them  evidently  so  incomplete. 
But  containing  as  they  do  their  author's  doctrine  of  the 
Church,  and  especially  his  enunciation  of  that  doctrine 
of  "  the  soul  of  the  Church,"  which  has  been  remarked 
as  one  of  the  chief  characteristics  of  his  preaching,  they 
could  ill  have  been  spared  from  this  volume. 

It  would  be  an  interesting  study  to  discover  wherein 
this  Catholic  doctrine  of  "  the  soul  of  the  Church,"  as 
enunciated  by  Father  Hyacinthe  in  Eome  and  Paris, 
with  the  approval  of  the  highest  dignitaries  of  his 
Church,  differs  from  that  doctrine  of  "the  Church  in- 
visible" which  is  cherished  by  evangelical  theologians 
of  various  schools;  certainly,  not  in  the  declaration 
that  there  is  no  salvation  outside  of  the  visible  Koman 


6  PEEFACE. 

Churcli  for  one  who  clearly  recognizes  the  duty  of  enter- 
ing therein.  Doubtless  all  sincere  theology  would 
declare  that  there  was  no  salvation  for  any  man  in  the 
way  of  the  wilful  disobedience  of  his  own  conscience. 
But  when  Father  Hyacinth e,  obeying  the  voice  of  an 
honest  conscience,  went  sorrowfully  forth  into  excom- 
munication from  the  Church  which  he  had  passionately 
loved,  and  illustriously  served,  he  set  forth,  with  an 
emphasis  to  which  not  even  Ms  eloquence  could  have 
attained,  the  necessary  corollary  of  his  doctrine,  to  wit: 
that  there  is  no  salvation  in  the  Roman  Church  for  one 
who  clearly  recognizes  the  duty  of  leaving  it. 

It  is  a  great  pleasure  to  the  editor  of  this  volume  to 
prefix  to  it  an  Introduction  from  the  distinguished  pen 
of  Mr.  Bigelow. 

The  authorization  which  Father  Hyacinthe  has  con- 
ceded to  Mr.  Putnam's  edition  of  his  works,  should  not 
be  understood  as  making  him  in  any  degree  responsible 
for  the  work  of  the  translator  and  editor. 


Leonard  Woolsey  Bacois'. 


I^Ew  England  Church,  Brooklyn, 
January,  1870. 


N.  B. — It  appears,  from  the  blunders  of  one  of  the  critics  of  the 
former  vokime  of  Father  Hyacinthe's  Discourses,  to  be  necessary 
to  reiterate  the  statement  prefixed  to  that  volume,  that  the  Notre 
Dame  Conferences  are  translated  from  incomplete  short-hand 
reports ;  and  to  inform,  not  readers,  but  those  who  criticise  with- 
out reading,  that  the  passages  within  brackets  contain  the  French 
editor's  summary  of  the  portions  of  the  argument  omitted,  and 
not  the  translator's  comments  on  the  portions  presented. 


TABLE  OF  COI^TEl^TS. 


INTRODUCTION 9 

THE  FAMILY— Six  Lectures  in  Notre  Dame,  1866-7 53 

Lecture    First — Domestic    Society    in    tlie    General 

Scheme  of  Human  Society 53 

The  Bonds  of  Society 56 

The  Forms  of  Society 61 

Relative  Importance  of  Domestic  Society 64 

Lecture  Second — Conjugal  Society  the  Foundation  of 

Domestic  Society 70 

Conjugal  Society  as  related  to  God  the  Creator 71 

Conjugal  Society  as  related  to  God  the  Redeemer..  82 

Lecture  Third — CoiTuption   of  Conjugal  Society  by 

the  Immorality  of  the  present  day 92 

Corruption  of  Conjugal  Society  in  its  Essence 92 

Violation  of  the  Law  of  Marriage 98 

Violation  of  Marriage  in  its  supernatural  consecra- 
tion as  a  Sacrament 102 

Lecture  Fourth — Fatherhood ;  106 

As  a  means  of  the  Reproduction  of  the  Individual . .  108 
As  a  means  of  the  Propagation  of  the  Species 115 

Lecture  Fifth — Family  Education 125 

The  Agents  of  Education 126 

The  Laws  of  Education 136 

Lecture  Sixth — Home 145 

Possession  of  the  Home 146 

Transmission  of  the  Home 151 

Occupation  of  the  Home 158 


8  TABLE  OF   CONTENTS. 

Page. 
THE  CHURCH~Six  Lectures  in  Notre  Dame,  1868-9. ...  165 
Lecture  First— The  Church  under  its  most  Univer- 
sal Aspect 165 

Lecture  Second — The  Church  of  the  Patriarchs 179 

Lecture  Third — The  Church  in  the  Family 192 

Lecture  Fourth — The  National  Church  of  the  Jews.  209 

Lecture  Fifth — The  Jewish  Church  in  its  relations  to 

the  Christian  Church 225 

Lecture  Sixth — Conflict  between  the  Letter  and  the 

Spirit  in  the  Jewish  Church 244 

SPEECH  on  the  Education  of  the  Working-Classes,  deliv- 
ered at  the  Catholic  Congress  of  Malines,  September 
6,1867 263 

MEMORIAL  LETTER  on  Bishop  Baudry 289 


APPENDIX. — Pastoral  Letter  of  Bishop  Dupanloup,  on 
the  Proposed  Definition  of  the  Dogma  of  Papal  In- 
faUibility 293 


INTRODUCTION. 


FATHER  HYACINTHE  AND  HIS  CHUECH  * 

OiT  the  18th  day  of  October  last,  the  Superior  of  the 
Monastery  of  Barefooted  Carmelites,  in  Paris,  was 
landed  from  a  French  steamer  upon  the  wharf  at  New 
York.  Instead  of  wearing  the  usual  garb  of  his  order, 
however,  he  was  clothed  in  the  ordinary  dress  of  a 
private  gentleman ;  instead  of  availing  himself  of  the 
hospitality  provided  in  most  large  cities  for  the  religious 
mendicant  orders,  he  drove  with  his  baggage  directly  to 
one  of  our  popular  hotels.  His  arrival  was  promptly 
telegraphed  to  the  extremities  of  the  continent ;  it  was 
the  subject  of  comment  in  every  newspaper  in  our  land. 
Every  source  of  information  was  ransacked  for  details 
of  his  life ;  his  hotel  was  thronged ;  he  was  interviewed 
by  reporters;  he  was  deluged  with  invitations;  shop- 
windows  and  illustrated  journals  were  radiant  with 
his  portrait ;  the  mails  were  loaded  with  expressions  of 
interest  and  sympathy  for  him;  in  fact,  Pius  IX.  him- 
self, if  he  had  executed  the  purpose  at  one  time  attribu- 
ted to  him,  of  taking  refuge  in  the  United  States,  could 
hardly  have  produced  a  greater  sensation. 

The  name  of  the  monk,  whose  extraordinary  reception 
among  us  contrasts  so  widely  with  that  usually  given  to 

♦  From  Putnam's  Magazine  for  January,  1870. 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

monastic  yisitors,  is  Charles  Loyson,  to  which  was 
added  that  of  Brother  Hyacinthe,  by  the  religions  order 
of  which  he  had  taken  the  vows.  Father  Hyacinthe — 
for  it  is  by  that  name  that  he  is  now  known  to  the 
world — is  a  French  gentleman  about  forty-two  years  of 
age,  a  graduate  of  the  Theological  Seminary  of  St.  Sul- 
pice ;  for  the  past  four  or  five  years  the  favorite  pulpit 
orator  of  Paris,  and  in  his  form,  carriage,  and  general 
appearance,  bearing  a  singular  resemblance  to  the  first 
Napoleon.  But  it  is  not  for  any  of  these  distinctions 
that  his  name  is  now  on  every  tongue,  and  his  praises 
are  echoing  from  continent  to  continent. 

The  day  Father  Hyacinthe  left  Paris,  he  renounced 
the  position  he  held  as  Superior  of  the  Convent  of  Car- 
melites, and  laid  aside  the  garb  of  his  order  without 
permission;  thus  provoking  the  solemn  penalties  of 
excommunication  from  his  Church,  that  he  might  the 
more  effectually  vindicate  the  rights  of  conscience  and 
the  "liberty  of  prophesying." 

It  was  this  daring  protest  of  the  most  illustrious  ora- 
tor of  the  Latin  communion  against  the  growing  pre- 
tensions of  the  Papacy,  that  has  awakened  in  this 
country  a  degree  of  interest,  not  easily  exaggerated,  in 
the  person  and  history  of  its  author. 

Of  the  origin  and  history  of  the  rupture  between 
Father  Hyacinthe  and  his  Church  but  little  is  generally 
known.  Till  his  departure  for  the  United  States  was 
telegraphed  from  France,  his  name  had  rarely  been 
heard  outside  of  his  own  religious  communion,  and  the 
impression  naturally  prevails  that  some  sudden  misun- 
derstanding had  resulted  in  an  explosion,  the  immediate 
effects  of  which  have  become  familiar  to  the  public. 
This  is  a  mistake.  The  antagonism  between  Father 
Hyacinthe  and  the  Papal  government,  or  its  ultramon- 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

tane  section,  has  been  developing  for  years,  though 
hitherto  successfully  concealed  from  the  secular  public. 
Nor  have  the  real  grounds  of  their  differences  yet  trans- 
pired. About  all  that  is  known  of  them  is,  that  his 
Catholicism  is  broader  than  that  of  Kome,  and  that  he 
prefers  to  defy  the  thunders  of  Eome  to  those  of  his 
own  conscience. 

"VYe  feel,  therefore,  that  we  cannot  render  a  more 
acceptable  service  to  the  public  than  to  give  a  brief 
history  of  a  religious  dissension  which,  in  view  of  the 
approaching  Council,  threatens  to  take  serious  propor- 
tions, and  which  can  hardly  fail,  in  any  event,  to  pro- 
duce a  profound  impression  upon  the  Latin  Church. 

In  the  summer  of  1864,  Father  Hyacinthe  was  invited 
to  deliver  an  address  before  a  club  of  young  people  or- 
ganized under  the  name  of  the  Cercle  Catholique,  or 
Catholic  Club,  at  Paris,  corresponding  to  some  extent 
with  our  Young  Me^i^s  Christimi  Association.  He  ac- 
cepted their  invitation,  and  in  the  course  of  an  address, 
conceived  in  fullest  sympathy  with  the  progressive 
thought  of  his  age,  he  referred  to  the  first  French  revo- 
lution in  the  following  terms : 

"  1789  est  un  fait  accompli,  et  s'il  n'etait  pas,  il  faudrait  I'accom- 
plir."* 

As  Father  Hyacinthe  was  already  as  well  known  for 
what  was  regarded  by  a  certain  class  of  his  co-religion- 
ists as  his  too  comprehensive  Christian  charity  as  for  his 
eloquence,  this  phrase  aroused  a  great  deal  of  feeling  in 
Paris ;  he  was  violently  attacked  by  the  Monde,  an  organ 
of  the  Ultramontanists,  and  a  cabal  was  speedily  organ- 
ized to  limit  the  infection  of  his  dangerous  eloquence  as 

*  "  1789  is  an  accomplished  fact ;  and  if  it  were  not,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
accomplish  it." 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

mucli  as  possible  by  destroying  his  influence.*  It  did 
not,  however,  succeed  in  poisoning  the  mind  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Paris,  who,  regardless  of  their  remon- 
strances, invited  Father  Hyacinthe  to  preach  the  Con- 
ferences of  Advent  that  year  at  Notre-Dame.  This  pul- 
pit for  years,  I  might  say  centuries,  has  been  reserved 
for  the  most  popular  orator  in  the  Galilean  Church. 
Several  attempts  had  been  made  to  revive  these  confer- 
ences since  the  death  of  Lacordaire,  but  they  had  proved 
unsuccessful.  None  of  the  preachers  designated  for  that 
duty  since  the  decease  of  the  famous  Dominican  had 
come  up  to  the  traditional  standard.  They  preached, 
but  they  failed  to  attract  hearers.  Some  discourses  de- 
livered by  Father  Hyacinthe  during  the  summer  imme- 
diately previous,  led  the  Archbishop  to  hope  that  he,  if 
any  one,  could  revive  the  ancient  glories  of  Notre-Dame. 
Nor  was  he  destined  to  be  disappointed.  Their  success 
was  complete,  though  the  3Iojide  did  not  see  fit  to  an- 
nounce them.  They  fixed  his  position  as  the  worthy 
successor,  not  only  of  Lacordaire,  but  of  any  of  his  pre- 
decessors in  that  famous  temple. 

It  was  at  these  conferences  that  the  writer  first  saw 
Father  Hyacinthe.  The  solemn  old  cathedral  was 
crowded  with  all  that  was  socially  most  distinguished 
in  Paris,  and  hundreds  hung  around  the  doors,  unable 
to    gain    admission,   but   seeking    to    catch    a   casual 

*  It  will  possibly  astonish  some  of  those  censors  of  Father  Hyacinthe  to  be 
reminded  of  the  following  avowal  made  by  Thiers  in  the  Corps  Legislatif  in 
1845: 

"•  Wherever  an  absolute  Government  ceases  to  exist  in  Europe,  whenever  a 
new  liberty  is  born,  France  loses  an  enemy  and  gains  a  friend.  Understand 
me  well.  I  am  of  the  party  of  the  Revolution,  as  well  in  France  as  in  Europe. 
I  desire  that  the  Government  of  the  Revolution  rest  in  the  hands  of  moderate 
men.  I  will  do  what  I  can  to  continue  it  there.  But  if  this  Government  shall 
pass  into  the  hands  of  men  less  moderate,  of  ardent  men,  even  radicals,  I 
shall  not  abandon  my  cause  for  that.  I  shall  always  be  of  the  party  of  the 
Revolution." 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

phrase  as  it  fell  from  the  burning  lips  of  the  hermit- 
preacher. 

The  following  entry,  made  in  the  writer's  diary  imme- 
diately after,  will  give  an  idea  of  the  impression  left 
upon  the  mind  of  a  foreigner  and  a  Protestant,  Avhom  cu- 
riosity, mainly,  had  brought  undet  the  magical  influ- 
ence of  his  eloquence. 

Sunday. — Went  to  hear  Father  Hyacinthe,  the  Carmelite,  at 
Notre-Dame.  Paid  a  franc  for  my  seat ;  Berryer  sat  just  in  front 
of  me.  Great  crowd.  The  speaker  middle-sized,  plump,  round- 
faced,  well-conditioned  man,  with  the  faculty  of  kindling  from 
his  subject  until  he  gets  into  a  blaze  of  eloquence.  His  move- 
ment is  exceedingly  graceful — as  perfect  as  possible.  I  would  go 
to  hear  him  again,  if  I  had  a  chance.  The  Archbishop  M'as 
present,  and  after  the  sermon  was  finished,  left  his  seat  below, 
mounted  the  pulpit,  and  made  a  short  speech  and  pronounced 
the  benediction." 

La  France,  a  semi-official  journal  of  the  Government, 
and  one  of  the  organs  of  the  Galilean  Church  in  Paris, 
gave  a  brief  account  of  this  conference,  which  closed  as 
follows : 

"When  Father  Hj-acinthe  had  descended  from  the  pulpit, 
where  we  hope  he  will  soon  reappear,  Monsignor  the  Archbishop 
of  Paris  took  his  place,  and  addressed  the  immense  audience,  an 
allocution  admirable  for  its  noble  thoughts  and  Christian  views. 
He  at  first  thanked  and  congratulated  the  young  and  brilliant  or- 
ator who  had  so  early  placed  himself  in  the  ranks  of  the  great 
masters  of  speech,  and  confirmed  his  teachings  with  all  his  au- 
thority as  a  bishop  and  his  charity  as  a  pastor. 

"  The  effect  produced  by  this  unexpected  discourse  was  great, 
and  the  crowd  dispersed  profoundly  impressed." 

To  measure  the  importance  of  the  Archbishop's 
presence  and  remarks  on  this  occasion,  it  is  necessary 
to  know  something  of  the  relations  then  subsisting 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

between  the  French  or   Clallican    and  Ultramontane 
Catholics. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  when  the  famous  popular 
demonstrations  were  made  in  Europe,  in  1848,  the  Pope 
gave  them  his  sympathies,  and  popular  meetings  were 
held  all  over  the  United  States  to  hail  the  omen.  That 
tendency  was  followed  by  a  violent  reaction,  and  since 
then  the  Roman  Church,  under  the  counsels  of  the 
Jesuits,  has  been  striving  in  every  possible  way  to  cen- 
tralize its  power  in  the  hands  of  the  nominal  head  of 
the  Church.  Its  first  trial  of  strength  on  a  large  scale 
was  made  in  the  proclamation  of  the  Pope,  in  1854, 
without  the  aid  of  any  council,  of  the  Immaculate  Con- 
ception of  the  Virgin  Mary  as  a  dogma  of  the  Church. 
The  audacity  of  this  proceeding  shocked  large  bodies 
of  French  and  German  Catholics,  and  provoked  many 
publications  designed  to  throw  doubt  upon  the  validity 
of  the  new  dogma.  The  leading  liberal  Catholics  of 
France  were  astonished,  and  many  were  alarmed ;  but 
Eome  was  to  them  too  important  an  ally  in  the  warfare 
they  were  waging  with  the  Imperial  Government,  to 
contest  the  growth  of  an  authority  which,  in  view  of 
their  pressing  exigencies,  they  were  disposed  to  increase 
rather  than  diminish.  They  therefore  quietly  accepted 
the  dogma,  but  they  became  only  the  more  zealous 
in  their  efforts  to  liberalize  the  Church  and  recon- 
cile it  with  the  civilizing  tendencies  of  the  age.  These 
very  efforts  tended  to  divide  them  as  a  class  more  and 
more  from  the  Ultramontanists.  To  give  power  and 
organization  to  the  reactionary  influence,  the  Liberals, 
prominent  among  whom  Avere  the  Archbishop  of  Paris, 
the  Bishop  of  Orleans,  the  Count  de  Montalembert, 
Bordas  Dumoulin,  Arnaud  de  Ariege,  the  Prince  de 
Broglie,  A.  Cochin,  Falloux,  and,  during  their  lives, 


INTKODUCTION.  15 

Lammenais,  Lacordaire,  and  Ozanam,  with  the  Aveni?' 
and  later  the  Revue  Correspo7idant,  for  their  organs  in 
the  press,  held  a  sort  of  Liberal  Catholic  Congress  at 
Malines,  in  August  of  the  year  1863,  at  which  they  gave 
formal  expression  to  their  distinctive  sentiments  and 
aspirations.  It  was  at  this  Congress  that  the  Count  de 
Montalembert  made  two  speeches,  which  were  widely 
circulated  in  France  as  a  faithful  reflection  of  the  feel- 
ings of  the  Congress.  A  paragraph  or  two  from  these 
discourses  will  disclose  at  once  the  spirit  and  significance 
of  this  movement. 

"  Of  all  the  liberties  of  which  up  to  this  time  I  have  undertaken 
the  defence,  the  liberty  of  conscience  is  m  my  eyes  the  most  pre- 
cious, the  most  sacred,  the  most  legitimate,  the  most  necessary. 
I  have  loved,  I  have  served  all  the  liberties,  but  I  honor  myself 
more  than  all  for  having  been  the  soldier  of  this.  Again  to-day, 
after  so  many  years,  so  many  contests,  and  so  many  defeats,  I 
cannot  speak  of  it  without  emotion.  *  *  *  Yet  I  must  ad- 
mit that  this  enthusiastic  devotion  for  religious  liberty  which 
animates  me,  is  not  general  among  the  Catholics.  They  desire 
liberty  for  themselves,  and  in  this  there  is  no  great  merit.  In 
general,  everybody  wishes  all  sorts  of  freedom  for  himself  But 
religious  freedom  in  itself;  freedom  of  conscience  to  every  one  ; 
that  freedom  of  worship  which  is  contested  and  resisted,  that  it 
is  which  disquiets  and  alarms  many  of  us. 

"  I  am,  then,  for  freedom  of  conscience,  in  the  interest  of 
Catholicism,  without  reserves  or  hesitation.  I  accept  freely  all 
its  consequences,  all  which  public  morals  do  not  reprove  and 
which  equity  demands.  This  conducts  me  to  a  delicate  but 
necessary  question,  I  will  meet  it  boldly.  Can  one .  to-day  de- 
mand liberty  for  truth — that  is,  for  himself  (for  every  one  acting 
in  good  faith  thinks  he  has  the  truth) — and  refuse  it  to  error  (that 
is,  to  those  who  do  not  think  as  we  do)  ? 

"  I  answer  boldly,  No.  Here  I  feel,  indeed,  incedo  per  ignes. 
So  I  hasten  to  add  again  that  I  have  no  pretension  to  give  more 
than  my  individual  opinion.  I  bow  to  all  the  texts,  all  the 
canons  which  may  be  cited.    I  will  not  contest  or  discuss  any  of 


16  INTRODUCTION. 

them.  But  I  cannot  trample  under  foot  to-day  the  conviction 
which  rules  in  my  heart  and  conscience.  I  declare,  then,  that  1 
experience  an  invincible  horror  for  all  those  punishments  and 
violences  visited  upon  humanity,  under  the  pretext  of  serving  or 
defending  religion.  The  fires  of  persecution,  lighted  by  Catholic 
hands,  shock  me  as  much  as  the  scaffold  on  which  Protestants 
have  immolated  so  many  martyrs.  The  gag  in  the  mouth  of  any 
one  preaching  his  belief  with  a  pure  heart,  I  feel  as  if  it  were  be- 
tween my  own  teeth,  and  I  shudder  with  the  pain  of  it.  The 
Spanish  inquisition  saying  to  the  heretic,  '  The  truth,  or  death,' 
is  as  odious  to  me  as  the  French  terrorist  saying  to  my  grand- 
father, '  Liberty,  fraternity,  or  death.'  No  one  has  the  right  to 
subject  the  human  conscience  to  such  hideous  alternatives." 

These  were  new  doctrines  to  come  from  any  large 
body  of  eminent  and  representative  Catholics.  They 
were  regarded  as  deliberately  hostile  to  the  Jesuits, 
and  generally  unfriendly  to  ultramontane  Catholicism. 
These  proceedings  had  barely  time  to  get  to  Eome, 
when  Europe  resounded  with  the  famous  Encyclical 
Letter  and  Syllabus  of  1864,  which  was  a  formal  pro- 
test from  Eome  against  pretty  much  everything  that 
had  been  accomplished  for  the  social  and  political  im- 
provement of  the  human  race  since  the  dark  ages. 

The  following  paragraph  from  this  famous  document 
leaves  no  doubt  that  it  was  designed  as  a  formal  rebuke 
of,  as  well  as  reply  to,  the  Congress  of  MalineS; 

"  You  are  not  ignorant,  venerable  brothers,  that  there  are  not 
wanting  men  in  our  day  who,  applying  to  civil  society  the  impi- 
ous and  absurd  principle  of  naturalism,  as  they  call  it,  dare  to 
teach  '  that  the  perfection  of  government  and  civil  progress  re- 
quire that  human  society  be  constituted  and  governed  without 
taking  any  more  account  of  religion  than  if  it  did  not  exist,  or  at 
least  without  distinguishing  between  the  true  and  the  false.'  Be- 
sides, contrary  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Scriptures,  of  the  Church 
and  the  holy  fathers,  they  do  not  fear  to  affirm  that  *  the  best 
government  is  that  which  recognizes  no  objection  in  itself  to  re- 


INTRODUCTION.  17 

press,  by  legal  penalties,  the  violators  of  the  Catholic  faith,  except 
when  necessary  to  maintain  social  order.'  Parting  from  this  ab- 
solutely false  idea  of  social  government,  they  do  not  hesitate  to 
favor  this  erroneous  opinion,  fatal  to  the  Catholic  Church  and  to 
the  safety  of  souls,  characterized  by  our  predecessor  of  happy 
memory,  Gregory  XVI.,  as  a  delirium,  *  that  the  freedom  of  con- 
science and  of  religious  worship  is  the  proper  right  of  every  man, 
which  ought  to  be  proclaimed  by  law,  and  secured  in  every  well- 
constituted  State,  and  that  citizens  have  a  right  to  the  fullest  free- 
dom in  expressing  their  opinions,  whatever  they  may  be,  by 
printing  or  otherwise,  without  any  limitation  from  civil  or  eccle- 
siastical authority.'  Kow,  in  sustaining  these  rash  affirmations, 
they  do  not  think  nor  consider  that  they  preach  the  freedom  of 
perdition,  and  that  if  it  be  permitted  to  human  opinions  to  con- 
test everything,  men  will  not  be  wanting  who  will  dare  resist  the 
truth,  and  place  their  confidence  in  the  verbiage  of  human  wis- 
dom, a  pernicious  vanity  which  faith  and  Christian  wisdom 
ought  to  carefully  avoid,  according  to  the  teaching  of  our  Lord." 

Attaclied  to  the  Encyclical  Letter  was  a  Syllabus,  or 
list  of  popular  errors  upon  which  the  Pope  wished 
specially  to  place  the  seal  of  his  condemnation.  We 
will  quote  a  few  of  these  proscribed  errors ;  a  few  will 
suffice,  for  from  them  the  rest  may  be  inferred — as  with 
a  telescope  all  objects  may  be  seen  within  its  range  by 
simply  changing  its  direction. 

"  Every  man  is  free  to  embrace  and  profess  the  religion  which 
he  shall  regard  as  true,  according  to  the  light  of  his  own  reason." 

The  reader  will  please  not  forget  that  the  propositions 
we  are  citing  are  condemned,  not  approved,  by  the  Syl- 
labus. 

'*  The  Church  has  no  right  to  employ  force. 

*'  The  Church  should  be  separated  from  the  State,  and  the 
State  from  the  Church. 

"  In  our  time,  it  is  not  useful  that  the  Catholic  religion  be  con- 
sidered the  only  religion  of  the  State,  to  the  exclusion  of  other 
modes  of  religious  worship. 


18  INTKODUCTION. 

*'  In  some  Catholic  countries,  the  law  has  wisely  provided  that 
foreigners  coming  there  to  settle  should  enjoy  the  public  exercise 
of  their  religion. 

"  It  is  false  that  the  freedom  of  all  religious  worship  propagates 
the  pestilence  of  indifference. 

"  The  Eoman  pontiff  can  and  should  put  himself  in  harmony 
with  progress,  with  liberalism,  and  with  modern  civilization." 

The  appearance  of  tliis  extraordinary  proclamation 
from  Rome  was,  of  course,  hailed  with  jubilant  enthu- 
siasm by  the  Jesuits  and  the  Ultramontanists.  "It 
was  their  hour  and  the  power  of  darkness."  The  Pope 
had  come  to  the  support  of  their  favorite  doctrines  with 
the  consecrated  weapon  of  his  Infallibility,  and  the 
apologists  of  Passive  Obedience  and  of  the  Inquisition 
were  proclaimed  to  have  most  correctly  divined  the  pol- 
icy of  the  Church. 

It  was  in  the  heat  of  this  contest  between  the  liberal 
Catholics  of  France  and  the  Ultramontanists,  that 
Father  Hyacinthe  vindicated  the  Eevolution  of  1789, 
and  w^as  invited  to  preach  the  Conferences  of  Advent  at 
Notre-Dame. 

We  have  already  spoken  of  the  efforts  made  at  this 
time  to  bring  his  teachings  under  discipline  at  Rome. 

To  disarm  his  adversaries,  or  to  neutralize  their  influ- 
ence, he  was  sent  for  by  the  General  of  his  order  to 
come  to  Rome,  in  1865,  under  the  pretext  of  assisting 
at  the  beatification  fetes  of  a  Carmelite  Nun  of  the  name 
of  Marie  des  Anges.  He  was  then  for  the  first  time  pre- 
sented to  the  Pope,  by  whom  he  was  received  with  the 
greatest  kindness,  and  so  far  from  being  censured,  or 
even  questioned,  was  treated  with  special  consideration. 

Meantime  the  war  went  on,  modified  more  or  less  by 
the  various  exigencies  of  the  Papacy  on  the  one  hand, 
and  of  the  liberal  Catholics  on  the  other,  until  1868, 


INTEODUCTION.  19 

when  Father  Hyacinthe  was  again  sent  for  to  come  to 
Eome,  ostensibly  to  preach  the  Conferences  for  Lent  in 
the  church  of  St.  Louis  of  France,  but  really  to  coun- 
teract by  his  presence,  if  possible,  the  prejudices  which 
the  Ultramontanists  were  still  sedulously  propagating 
against  him.  His  subject  for  these  conferences  was 
"The  Church,"  which  he  treated  in  a  most  compre- 
hensive and  liberal  spirit,  and  with  scant  respect  for 
mere  sectarian  distinctions.  He  sought  to  trace  the 
plan  of  a  uniyersal  church  which  should  conciliate 
God's  children  in  all  Christian  communions,  while  he 
specially  denounced  the  Pharisaism  which  in  our  Lord's 
time  was  constantly  seeking  to  entrap  Him  in  His 
words,  as  it  is  now  seeking  to  entrap  His  disciples. 

His  success  was  something  marvellous ;  it  was  almost, 
if  not  quite,  unprecedented.  He  was  received  on  this 
visit,  also,  in  the  kindest  manner  by  the  Pope,  who  tes- 
tified his  pontifical  affability  by  a  most  gracious  pun 
upon  his  name.  He  called  him  ^^  Hyacmthe,  fieur  et 
pierre  precieuse.^^ 

Father  Hyacinthe  left  Eome  again,  triumphing,  it 
may  be,  over  his  enemies,  but  with  impressions  of  the 
Holy  City  and  government  painfully  unsettled.  Like 
Luther  when  he  returned  from  his  first  visit  to  Eome, 
he  felt  as  if  he  were  awakening  from  a  painful  dream. 
He  had  not  found  the  dignitaries  there  assembled  to 
receive  the  oracles  of  God,  as  exempt  from  human  in- 
firmities as  he  had  been  educated  to  believe  them.  He 
encountered  ignorance  often  where  he  looked  for  wis- 
dom, intolerance  where  he  expected  charity  and  broth- 
erly love;  double-dealing,  selfishness,  and  worldly- 
mindedness  where  ingenuousness  and,  devotion  to  the 
Church,  to  humanity,  and  to  God  were  promised.  With 
all  his  success,  he  left  Eome  more  troubled  in  mind 


20  INTRODUCTION. 

than  when,  almost  in  the  character  of  a  criminal,  and 
uncertain  of  the  reception  that  awaited  him,  he  set  out 
for  the  Eternal  City.  Suspicions  had  been  planted 
there  which  reacted  upon  many  of  the  most  pleasing 
and  endeared  associations  of  his  life. 

In  December  of  1868  he  was  again  invited  to  preach 
the  conferences  at  Notre-Dame.  He  treated  of  the 
same  subject,  "The  Church,"  wliich  had  been  the 
theme  of  his  conferences  at  Kome,  and  from  substan- 
tially the  same  point  of  view.  His  portrait  of  what  he 
regarded  as  the  true  idea  of  a  Universal  Christian 
Church,  contrasted  so  broadly  with  the  Church  of  the 
Encyclique  and  the  Syllabus  of  1864,  that  it  greatly  in- 
creased the  irritation  of  the  Ultramontanists,  which  was 
aggravated  to  exasperation  by  the  closing  discourse  on 
Pharisaism,  the  aim  of  which  could  not  be  mistaken.  The 
Archbishop  of  Paris  listened  also  to  this  discourse,  and 
at  its  close  made  a  public  acknowledgment  to  the  orator. 

The  following  extract  from  a  despatch  of  Cardinal 
Bernis,  when  Prench  Minister  to  Rome,  addressed  to 
the  Minister  of  Foreign  Aifairs,  in  1779,  is  calculated 
to  leave  the  impression  that  Pharisaism,  in  the  eyes  of 
French  Catholics,  is  a  chronic  vice  with  the  Ultra- 
montanists, and  that  that  phrase  in  the  mouth  of 
Pather  Hyacinthe  had  a  traditional  significance,  which 
is  almost  necessary  to  account  for  the  bitterness  which, 
in  this  instance,  it  will  be  found  to  have  engendered : 

"  They  think,  at  Rome,"  he  writes,  "  that  the  Catholic  Courts 
do  but  their  duty  when  they  favor  the  Court  of  Rome,  and  that 
they  fail  of  their  duty  when  they  do  not  blindly  everything  it  pre- 
tends to  have  the  right  to  decide.  The  habit  of  seeing  these 
things  does  not  prevent  my  being  often  revolted  by  it.  I  have 
not  to  reproach  myself  with  not  liaving  expostulated  upon  the 
subject  on  more  than  one  occasion,  hut  the  evil  is  incurable.    I 


INTRODUCTION.  21 

content  myself,  therefore,  with  making  the  best  of  a  countiy 
where  PMrisaisin,  if  I  may  permit  myself  to  use  such  a  term, 
prevails  more  than  anywhere  else." 

While  descending,  as  it  were,  from  the  pulpit  of  Notre- 
Dame,  on  the  occasion  to  which  we  have  just  referred. 
Father  Hyacinthe  received  a  summons  to  repair  at  once 
to  Eome,  to  explain  a  letter  which  had  recently  appeared 
oyer  his  signature  in  an  Italian  Eeview,  and  which  w^as 
reported  to  have  filled  the  heart  of  the  Jloly  Father 
with  a  degree  of  wa'ath  generally  supposed  to  be  un- 
known to  celestial  minds.  And  what  offence,  what 
crime,  could  have  been  committed  to  have  provoked  the 
Pope  to  such  a  humiliating,  such  a  degrading  procedure 
against  the  most  popular  preacher  in  the  Church,  at  the 
very  moment  when  the  lofty  aisles  of  Notre-Dame  were 
yet  ringing  with  his  matchless  eloquence  ? 

We  will  explain  as  briefly  as  possible.  In  one  of  the 
Paris  Clubs,  Father  Hyacinthe  had  been  accused  by  a 
popular  orator  of  having  invoked  the  aid  of  canister- 
shot  against  atheists  and  free-thinkers.  Though  noth- 
ing was  farther  from  the  thoughts  or  character  of  the 
preacher,  he  thought  it  his  duty  to  reply  to  the  charge, 
in  a  letter  which  was  read  at  the  next  meeting  of  the 
Club.    In  the  course  of  this  letter  he  said : 

"  I  did  not  think  it  was  necessar}"-  to  separate  my  cause  from 
that  of  certain  Catholics  who,  without  appealing  to  canister,  yet 
mourn  the  loss  of  the  Inquisition  and  the  Dragonnades.  They 
have  taken  care  to  separate  themselves  from  me  by  attacks  of 
which  I  have  been  the  target  since  the  beginning  of  my  ministiy, 
and  which  assail,  I  admit,  the  most  deliberate  and  unshakable 
convictions  of  my  reason  and  of  my  conscience." 

This  letter  was  bitterly  assailed  by  the  ultramontane 
press,  and  provoked  a  second  reprimand  from  the  Gen- 


22  INTRODUCTION. 

eral  of  his  order.*  It  was  followed  shortly  by  another, 
written  privately  to  the  editor  of  la  Revisia  Universale, 
of  Genoa,  accompanying  a  religions  discourse,  designed 
for  the  columns  of  the  Keview.  The  Revista  Universale 
is  a  liberal  Catholic  periodical,  monthly,  we  belieye,  be- 
longing to  the  same  order,  doctrinally  speaking,  as  the 
Correspo7idant  of  Paris.  It  is  edited  by  a  personal 
friend  of  Father  Hyacinthe,  the  Marquis  Salvago,  who 
is  also  a  Member  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies ;  and  it 
numbers  among  its  contributors  such  men  as  Caesar 
Cantu,  the  historian,  Audisio,  a  learned  professor  at 
Eome,  and  other  equally  renowned  and  equally  unsus- 
pected Catholics.  The  Marquis  wrote  for  permission  to 
publish  the  private  note  with  the  discourse.  Permission 
was  given.  .  The  letter  in  question  had  been  written 
just  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  recent  Spanish  revolu- 
tion, and  when  all  the  ultramontane  press  were  firing 
the  hearts  of  the  faithful  to  rally  them  to  the  rescue  of 
the  Church,  imperilled  in  the  sacred  person  of  the  most 
Catholic  Queen  Isabella.    In  this  note  he  said : 

"  The  old  political  organization  of  Catholicism  in  Europe  is 
tumbling  over  on  all  sides  in  blood,  or,  what  is  worse,  into  the 
mu'e,  and  it  is  to  these  crumbling  and  shameful  fragments  that 
they  would  bind  the  future  of  the  Church." 

Ill-disposed  persons  persuaded  the  Pope  that  this  was 
an  allusion  to  the  declining  fortunes  of  his  temporal 
power,  and  Monsignor  Xardi,  Uditore  di  Rota,  had  given 
the  letter  that  interpretation,  in  a  communication  to 
the  Osservatore  Cattolico  of  Milan. 

His  Holiness  accepted  the  interpretation  without  hes- 
itation or  inquiry.     "He  says  we  are  fallen  into  the 

*  Allusion  to  this  is  made  by  the  General,  in  his  letter  of  September  26, 
threatening  Father  Hyacinthe  with  excommunication  in  case  he  did  not  re- 
turn to  his  convent  within  ten  days. 


INTRODUCTION.  23 

mire,  ^  nella  fanga^  ^''  cried  out  the  Poioe,  to  one  of  liis 
court.  He  was  excessively  irritated,  and  directed  orders 
to  be  sent  at  once  through  the  State  Department  to 
Father  Hyacinthe,  to  explain  his  letter  in  the  next 
number  of  the  Revista.  "  The  soul  of  the  Holy  Father," 
they  wrote  to  him  from  Rome,  "is  filled  with  bitter- 
ness." 

Father  Hyacinthe  had  no  difficulty  in  washing  his 
hands  of  whatever  was  offensive  in  the  letter  which  had 
so  disturbed  the  peace  of  his  ecclesiastical  sovereign,  and 
showed,  in  a  brief  communication  to  the  Revista,  that 
his  previous  note  had  no  reference  whatever  to  the  tem- 
poral power  of  the  Pope.  But  while  vindicating  him- 
self from  this  gratuitous  accusation,  he  took  occasion  to 
remind  the  Pope  of  his  fallibility  in  a  way  to  leave  a  far 
more  grievous  wound  than  the  imaginary  attack  upon 
his  temporal  authority  had  occasioned.  He  said  that 
Austria  Concorditaire  had  fallen  in  blood  at  Sadowa, 
and  that  absolutist  and  intolerant  Spain  had  fallen  into 
the  mire  with  the  government  of  Isabella  II. ;  that  to 
bind  the  interests  of  the  Church  to  any  of  these  ex- 
piring regimes  was  to  bind  them  to  impotent  and  dis- 
honored ruins.  He  then  dwelt  upon  the  liberal  and 
reforming  spirit  of  the  first  years  of  Pius  IX.,  and  cited 
the  following  striking  passage  from  the  letter  of  the 
Pope  himself  in  1848  to  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  to  per- 
suade him  to  yield  to  the  Italian  aspirations  for  national 
unity. 

"  Let  it  not  be  disagreeable  to  the  generous  German  nation  that 
we  invite  it  to  lay  aside  all  hatred,  and  to  convert  into  useful  rela- 
tions of  friendly  neighborhood  a  domination  which  would  be  nei- 
ther noble  nor  prosperous  if  it  rested  solely  upon  the  sword. 

*'  So  have  we  contidence  that  the  nation  justly  proud  of  its  own 
nationality  will  not  commit  its  honor  to  bloody  attempts  against 


24  INTKODUCTION. 

the  Italian  nation,  but  will  rather  make  it  a  point  to  recognize  her 
nobly  for  a  sister, — since  both  are  daughters  very  near  to  our 
heart,— each  content  to  dwell  within  her  natural  frontiers  with 
honorable  treaties,  and  the  Lord's  blessing." 

This  letter  committed  the  unpardonable  fault  of  repro- 
ducing an  epoch  and  acts  which  the  Holy  Father  wished 
consigned  to  oblivion.  It  irritated  him  beyond  meas- 
ure. When,  soon  after  this  letter  appeared,  the  General 
of  the  Carmelites  at  Eome  asked  the  Papal  blessing  for 
his  order,  the  Pope  is  said  to  have  replied,  "  Yes,  for  all 
your  order,  but  not  for  Father  Hyacinthe.'' 

It  was  in  this  frame  of  mind  that  the  letter  was  con- 
ceived which  summoned  Father  Hyacinthe  to  Eome  in 
January,  1869. 

Father  Hyacinthe  did  not  choose  to  comply  with  this 
summons  at  once.  He  assigned  as  reasons  for  defer- 
ring his  visit,  that  he  was  fatigued  with  the  conferences 
which  he  had  just  concluded,  that  his  health  had  suffered 
from  the  rigors  and  privations  of  conventual  life,*  that 
he  had  certain  engagements  in  France  to  fulfil,  that  the 
season  was  unfavorable  to  travelling,  etc.  With  one  or 
another  of  these  reasons  he  excused  himself  from  going 
to  Eome,  though  repeatedly  urged  to  come,  and  even 
threatened,  if  he  longer  delayed,  with  expulsion  from 
his  order,  and  prohibition  from  preaching  or  saying  the 
mass.  Independent  of  the  reasons  he  assigned  for  this 
delay,  there  were  others  which  it  requires  no  very  lively 
imagination  to  suppose  were  operating  upon  his  mind. 
He  was  doubtless  unwilling  to  reveal  to  the  public  the 
full  force  of  the  indignity  put  upon  him  by  the  Papal 
summons,  as  he  would  have  done  by  obeying  it  promptly. 

*  He  did  not  taste  meat  for  the  ten  years  he  was  attached  to  the  convent, 
except  when  discharging  duties  outside.  Then  he  had  the  privilege  of  living 
as  others  lived. 


INTRODUCTION.  25 

The  effect  would  have  been  in  every  way  as  prejudicial 
to  the  Church  as  to  himself.  It  might  be,  too,  that  the 
insensibility  exhibited  by  the  Pope  for  his  feelings  and 
position  in  the  Church,  might  extend  to  his  person,  for 
in  Rome  prisons  and  graves  as  well  as  the  churches  yawn 
at  the  behest  of  his  Holiness.  * 

In  the  course  of  his  journey  to  Rome,  Father  Ilya- 
cinthe  passed  through  Florence.  There  he  saw  some 
of  the  Italian  deputies,  and  especially  M.  Massari,  the 
friend  and  posthumous  editor  of  Gioberti.  He  also 
attended  the  session  of  the  Chamber,  always,  of  course, 
in  his  monkish  dress,  when  the  new  Menabrea  ministry 
was  installed.  A  Carmelite  monk  fellowshipping  with 
Italian  liberals  at  Florence  was  not  an  event  to  escape 
notice  or  animadversion.  He.  was  rated  for  it  very 
severely  by  F  Unit  a  CattoUca  and  other  ultramontane 
organs.  He  reached  Rome  at  the  Feast  of  Pentecost, 
and  on  the  very  day  that  the  papers  arrived  announcing 
and  denouncing  his  visit  to  the  Italian  Chamber  of 
Deputies.  Though  sensible  that  his  visit  to  Florence 
was  not  likely  to  increase  the  cordiality  of  his  reception 
at  the  Vatican,  he  lost  no  time  in  applying  for  an  audi- 
ence. It  was  granted  without  delay,  which,  for  a  person 
under  discipline,  was  unusual.  This  was  his  first  sur- 
prise. On  entering  the  papal  presence,  his  countenance 
wore  a  respectful  but  sad  expression,  as  became  a  man 
who  had  been  treated  with  injustice  and  was  conscious 
of  the  rectitude  of  his  motives.  The  Pope  extended  his 
hand  to  him.  As  the  Apostle  refused  to  profit  by  the 
open  doors  to  escape  from  the  prison  to  which  he  had 
been  unjustly  condemned,  so  the  Father  declined  the 
extended  hand  until  he  had  kneeled  and  kissed  the 
foot  of  the  Pope,  after  the  usual  custom  of  the  faithful. 
He  then  rose,  and  with  his  hands  folded  beneath  his 

2 


26  INTRODUCTION. 

scapulary,  stood  silent.  After  a  moment's  stillness  on 
both  sides,  the  Pope  asked  why  he  had  come  to  Eome. 
Father  Hyacinthe  made  no  reply,  for  he  knew  that  his 
questioner  had  no  more  need  than  he  of  the  informa- 
tion. The  Pope  resumed,  "  I  told  your  General  that  I 
wished  to  speak  to  you,  but  you  were  occupied  and 
unable  to  come." 

Father-  H.  "  Very  Holy  Father,  I  was  not  only  occu- 
pied, but  suffering  in  health." 

The  Pope.  "  You  haye  written  some  things  lacking 
prudence  and  good  sense,  but  I  forget  now  what  they 
are." 

Father  H.  "Very  Holy  Father,  it  is  very  possible 
that  I  haye  written  things  wanting  in  prudence  and 
good  sense,  but  if  I  haye,  it  has  not  been  my  intention 
to  do  so." 

The  Fope.  "  It  was  in  an  Italian  journal ;  one  of 
those  journals  which  are  striving  to  reconcile  Jesus 
Christ  with  Belial." 

Father  H.  "  I  have  never  written  but  for  one  Italian 
Eeview,  La  Revista  Universale,  of  Genoa,  but  it  is  my 
duty  to  say  to  your  Holiness,  in  reference  to  my  letters 
in  that  print,  that  my  enemies  have  attributed  to  me 
not  only  the  opposite  of  my  thoughts,  but  the  opposite 
of  my  language.  Monsignor  Nardi  has  calumniated 
me." 

The  last  words  were  repeated  in  Italian  and  empha- 
sized with  respectful  firmness.  The  Pope  resumed  with 
affability,  "  Then  why  did  you  not  set  yourself  right  in 
the  same  Eeview  ?" 

Father  H,    "  I  did  so,  and  in  the  same  Eeview." 

Tlie  Pope.  "  Ah !  yes,  but  you  have  reproduced  a 
letter  of  the  Pope  to  the  Emperor  of  Austria.  That 
was  ill-timed." 


INTRODUCTION.  27 

Father  H.  "Very  Holy  Father,  I  believed  I  was 
doing  honor  to  your  Holiness.  It  is  often  affirmed  that 
the  Pope  is  the  enemy  of  Italy ;  I  have  wished  to  show 
by  his  own  words  that  while  he  condemns  its  faults,  he 
loves  the  nation." 

His  Holiness  was  not  insensible  to  the  compliment 
latent  in  this  reply,  and  appeared  perfectly  satisfied 
with  the  Father's  explanation.  He  detained  him  in 
conversation  for  a  full  half-hour  longer,  and  with  a 
degree  of  affability  and  freedom  which  Father  Hya- 
cinthe  had  never  experienced  at  any  previous  interview. 
They  talked  of  the  religious  and  political  situation,  of 
the  approaching  Council,  of  the  temporal  power,  and  es- 
pecially of  the  Emperor  and  of  the  Archbishop  of  Paris, 
both  of  whom,  though  in  different  ways,  have  contrived 
to  give  the  Holy  Father  not  a  little  concern  of  mind. 

The  Pope  gave  Father  Hyacinthe  some  prudential 
counsel  in  the  most  general  terms,  and  having  special 
reference  to  the  gravity  of  the  situation  of  the  Church, 
but  uttered  not  a  syllable  of  censure  upon  his  preaching 
or  conduct.  He  did  not  ask  him  to  withdraw  a  word 
he  had  spoken,  or  to  undo  anything  he  had  done,  nor 
did  he  impose  upon  him  any  sort  of  prohibition  whatso- 
ever. 

While  speaking  of  the  temporal  power,  his  Holiness 
observed  that  he  only  insisted  upon  it  as  a  principle  of 
justice,  and  added:  "Ambition  is  not  a  motive  with 
Popes." 

Father  Hyacinthe  profited  by  this  remark  to  bring 
back  the  conversation,  become  too  general,  to  his  own 
afiairs,  and  said : 

"  If  the  Holy  Father  will  excuse  my  referring  to  how- 
ever remote  a  resemblance  between  us,  I  may  say  also 
that  ambition  is  not  the  motive  which  inspires  me.    I 


28  -  INTEODUCTION. 

became  priest  and  recluse  only  to  serve  God  and  His 
Church,  and  to  saye  sonls ;  now  they  are  trying  to  de- 
stroy my  usefulness  by  poisoning  the  ears  of  your  Holi- 
ness and  of  the  Catholics  in  France  with  calumnies.  I 
have  for  enemies,  very  Holy  Father,  the  friends  of 
M.  Yeuillot  and  the  enemies  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Paris." 

To  this  the  Pope  oddly  enough  answered:  "If  the 
Archbishop  finds  his  position  so  delicate,  and  thinks  it 
necessary  to  show  so  much  caution  in  his  relations  with 
the  Government,  why  do  you  not  take  counsel  from 
some  of  the  other  bishops  of  France  ?" 

The  Father  made  no  reply :  there  was  but  one  thing 
to  say,  but  that  was  unnecessary  and  would  have  been 
direspectful :  "  Why  did  you  name  him  Archbishop  of 
Paris  ?" 

The  Pope  then  blessed  the  Father  very  affectionately, 
saying:  "I  bless  you,  dear  Hyacinthe,  that  you  may 
never  say^  what  they  accuse  you  of  having  said,  and 
which  you  affirm  that  you  never  said." 

Thus  terminated  the  Father's  third  and  last  visit  to 
the  great  Catholic  metropolis.  Each  time  he  had  gone 
there  as  an  offender  under  discipline,  and  each  time  he 
left  without  a  word  of  censure  for  the  past  or  of  instruc- 
tion for  the  future.  The  cordiality  and  homage  which 
awaited  him  from  the  court  when  the  character  of  his 
reception  had  transpired,  was  proportioned  to  the  cold- 
ness and  reserve  with  which  he  had  been  received  on 
his  arrival.  He  was  congratulated  upon  the  great  vic- 
tory he  had  achieved,  and  the  triumph  that  awaited 
him.  Ambitious  prelates  flocked  around  him  to  testify 
their  gratification  with  his  success,  and  for  the  moment 
he  was  the  lion  of  Rome.  He  did  not,  however,  tarry 
long  to  enjoy  his  victory — for  to  him  it  was  no  victory. 


INTRODUCTION.  29 

It  was  ail  elaborate  outrage.  He  was  summoned  to 
Rome  in  a  way  whicli  only  the  gravest  offence  could 
justify ;  his  usefulness  in  the  Church  and  his  standing 
with  the  world  were  gravely  compromised.  He  reached 
Eome  under  the  condemnation  of  his  brethren,  and 
though  confident  in  his  innocence,  he  naturally  ex- 
pected a  serious  investigation  of  charges  plausible  as 
well  as  serious  in  their  character.  He  waits  upon  the 
Pope,  who  has  or  pretends  to  have  forgotten  what  he 
came  for;  who  accepts  unhesitatingly  an  explanation 
of  the  offending  letter,  which  a  simple  perusal  would 
have  rendered  superfluous;  he  utters  no  word  of  re- 
buke ;  he  asks  him  to  retract  nothing  he  has  ever  writ- 
ten or  said;  he  prescribes  no  restrictions  upon  his 
future  conduct,  and  closes  with  a  peculiarly  disingenu- 
ous effort  to  sow  dissension  between  him  and  his  Arch- 
bishop. 

Father  Hyacinthe  set  out  for  home,  scarcely  conscious 
himself,  probably,  of  the  change  which  the  third  visit 
to  Rome  had  wrought  in  him.  He  had  begun  to  learn 
with  how  little  wisdom  his  Church  was  governed,  and 
to  ask  himself  if  this  is  the  sort  of  men  whom  it  is  pro- 
posed by  a  Universal  Council  to  proclaim  infallible  ?  Is 
this  the  sort  of  statesmen  whose  temporal  power  and 
sovereignty  are  essential  to  the  independence  of  the 
Church  and  to  the  protection  of  the  holy  Catholic 
religion  ? 

A  few  days  after  the  Father's  return  to  Paris,  M. 
Veuillot,  in  the  Univers,  pretended  to  give  an  account 
of  what  had  passed  between  him  and  the  Pope,  present- 
ing it,  of  course,  in  a  point  of  view  anything  but  advan- 
tageous to  the  monk.  His  article  provoked  the  follow- 
ing reply  from  Father  Hyacinthe,  bearing  date  the  8th 
of  June  last : 


30  INTKODUCTION. 

"  Sir  :  Too  faitliful  to  the  practices  of  a  certain  press  calling 
itself  Catholic,  you  presume  to  divine  what  passed  between  the 
Holy  Father  and  myself,  on  ground  where  neither  delicacy  nor 
self-respect  permit  me  to  follow  you. 

"  It  is  very  true  that  in  consequence  of  attacks  from  a  religious 
party  which  I  am  honored  in  having  for  adversaries,  I  have  been 
summoned  to  Rome  by  the  Holy  Father;  but  it  is  no  less  true^ 
that  I  was  received  by  him  with  a  goodness  altogether  paternal, 
and  that  I  have  not  been  required  to  retract  a  single  word  of 
what  I  have  either  written  or  spoken. 

*'  This  reply  once  made,  whatever  insinuations  my  public 
speech  or  private  conduct  may  expose  me  to  in  the  future,  you 
will  permit  me  to  consult  as  well  my  taste  as  my  dignity  by 
maintaining  silence. 

"  Receive,  Sir,  the  assurance  of  such  sentiments  as  I  owe  you, 
in  the  charity  of  om*  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

A  few  days  after  this  note  appeared  in  Paris,  the 
following  note  appeared  in  the  form  of  a  communica- 
tion in  V  Osservatore  Romano,  an  "  officious"  print,  pub- 
lished in  Rome. 

Let  us  premise  that  the  Convent  of  which  Father 
Hyacinthe  was  Superior  is  situated  at  Passy,  formerly  a 
suburb,  but  now  a  part  of  the  city  of  Paris,  and  also  the 
site  of  a  renowned  asylum  for  the  insane. 

"  From  Passy,  a  place  near  Paris,  renowned  for  its  hospitals, 
and  where  mental  diseases  are  healed  with  success,  a  French 
barefooted  Carmelite  writes  to  a  Catholic  journal  a  letter,  the 
contents  of  which  are  not  entirely  in  conformity  with  the  truth." 

This  offensive  paragraph  was  attributed  to  the  Pope 
himself,  both  in  the  office  of  the  Univers,  and  at  the 
papal  legation  at  Paris,  and  was  the  theme  of  a  triumph- 
ant article  in  the  ultramontane  organ.  The  editor  did 
not  scruple  to  apply  to  it  the  words  of  St.  Augustin : 


INTEODUCTION.  31 

"  Roma  loGuta  est,  sausa  finita  est"    Eome has  spoken ; 
the  case  is  finished. 

On  tlie  lOtli  of  July,  Fatlier  Hyacinthe  was  invited 
to  address  the  Peace  Society  of  Paris,  and  accepted  the 
invitation.  In  his  discourse  were  two  paragraphs  con- 
ceived in  that  large  and  comprehensive  Christian  charity 
which  had  already  so  often  provoked  the  secret  or  open 
censures  of  the  Jesuits  and  ultramontane  Catholics. 

"  For  my  part,"  he  said,  "  I  bring  to  the  Peace  movement  tM 
gospel ;  not  that  gospel  dreamed  of  by  sectaries  of  eveiy  age — as 
narrow  as  their  own  hearts  and  minds — but  my  own  gospel,  re- 
ceived by  me  from  the  Church  and  from  Jesus  Christ ;  a  gospel 
which  claims  authority  over  everything  and  excludes  nothing — 
\sen%atiori\ — ^which  reiterates  and  fulfils  the  word  of  the  Master, 
*he  that  is  not  against  us  is  for  us,'  and  which,  instead  of  reject- 
ing the  hand  stretched  out  to  it,  marches  forward  to  the  van  of 
all  just  ideas  and  all  honest  souls."     [Aj^plause.] 

Farther  on,  he  made  the  concession  which  brought 
upon  him  the  formal  censure  of  his  General,  and  may, 
therefore,  be  regarded  as  the  proximate  cause  of  his 
quitting  his  Convent.    He  said : 

"  To  banish  war,  to  say  to  it  what  the  Lord  says  to  death — *  O 
death,  I  will  be  thy  death' — we  must  make  exterminating  war  on 
sin^sin  of  society  as  well  as  of  the  individual — sin  of  peoples  as 
well  as  of  kings.  We  must  record  and  expound  to  the  world, 
which  does  not  understand  them  as  yet,  those  two  great  books  of 
public  and  private  morality,  the  book  of  the  synagogue,  written 
by  Moses  with  the  fires  of  iSiuai,  and  transmitted  by  the  prophets 
to  the  Christian  Church  ;  and  our  own  book,  the  book  of  grace, 
which  upholds  and  fulfils  the  law,  the  gospel  of  the  Son  of  God. 
The  decalogue  of  Moses,  and  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ ! — the 
decalogue,  which  speaks  of  righteousness,  while  showing  at  the 
height  of  righteousness  the  fruit  of  charity ;  the  gospel,  which 
speaks  of  charity,  while  showing  in  the  roots  of  charity  the  sap 
of  righteousness.    This  is  what  we  need  to  affirm  by  word  and 


32  INTRODUCTION. 

by  example,  what  we  need  to  glorify  before  peoples  and  kings 
alike !     {^Prolonged  applause.] 

*'  Thank  you  for  this  applause !  It  comes  from  j^our  hearts, 
and  it  is  intended  for  these  divine  books !  In  the  name  of  these 
two  books,  I  accept  it.  I  accept  it  also  in  the  name  of  those 
sincere  men  who  group  themselves  about  these  books,  in  Europe 
and  America,  It  is  a  most  palpable  fact  that  there  is  no  room  in 
the  daylight  of  the  civilized  world  except  for  these  three  religious 
communions — Catholicism,  Protestantism,  and  Judaism  !"  [Re- 
newed applause.] 

The  concession  of  tlie  privileges  of  salvation  and 
grace  to  the  Jews,  not  to  speak  of  Protestants,  was  the 
coup  de  grace  to  ultramontane  forbearance. 

The  phrase  in  reference  to  the  three  religions,  which 
was  vehemently  applauded,  was  immediately  perverted 
by  the  Uiiivers,  and  made  the  pretext  for  violent  and 
prolonged  attacks.  They  represented  the  preacher  as 
saying  that  there  were  three  religions  equally  accept- 
able in  the  sight  of  God,  or  at  least  three  religions 
equally  entitled  to  be  taught  to  men ;  whereas,  he  had 
simply  announced  the  fact,  so  honorable  to  the  Bible, 
that  the  three  religious  societies  which  recognized  its 
authority,  the  Jewish,  the  Catholic,  and  the  Protestant,  * 
are  the  only  ones  upon  which  the  sun  of  civilization 
shines. 

This  discourse  produced  a  profound  sensation  at 
Eome,  and  brought  promptly  from  the  General  of  his 
order  the  following  letter,  dated  July  22,  1869,  not  only 
reflecting  upon  the  tendency  of  his  past  teachings,  but 
strictly  prohibiting  him  from  meddling  with  any  of  the 
'  questions  agitated  among  Catholics  : 

THE  SUPERIOR-GENERAL  TO  THE  MONK. 

"  Rome,  July  22, 1869. 
"  My  Very  Rev.  Father  Hyacestthe  :  I  have  received  your 
letter  of  the  9th  inst,  and  in  a  short  time  after  the  speech  which 


INTEODUCTION.  33 

you  delivered  at  the  Peace  League.  I  have  not,  happily,  found 
in  that  speech  the  heterodox  phrase  attributed  to  you.  It  must 
be  said,  however,  that  it  contaius  some  vague  propositions,  ad- 
mitting of  unfortunate  interpretations,  and  that  such  a  speech 
does  not  come  well  from  a  monk.  The  habit  of  the  Carmelite 
was  certainly  there  no  longer  in  its  place.  My  reverend  father 
and  dear  friend,  you  know  the  great  interest  I  have  always  taken 
in  you.  From  the  commencement  of  your  sermons  at  Notre- 
Dame  de  Paris,  I  have  earnestly  exhorted  you  not  to  identify 
yourself  with  questions  in  dispute  among  Catholics,  and  on  which 
all  were  not  agreed ;  because,  from  the  moment  3^ou  attach  your- 
self ostensibly  to  one  side,  your  ministry  becomes  more  or  less 
unfruitful  with  the  other.  Now,  it  is  patent  that  you  have  made 
no  account  of  the  intimation  of  your  father  and  superior,  as  last 
year  you  wrote  a  letter  to  a  Club  in  Paris,  in  which,  you  freely 
disclosed  your  opinions  in  favor  of  a  party,  having  little  wisdom, 
and  in  opposition  with  the  sentiments  of  the  Holy  Father,  the 
episcopacy,  and  the  clergy  in  general.  I  was  alarmed,  as  were 
also  the  French  clergy.  I  wrote  to  you  immediately,  to  enable 
you  to  see  the  false  path  you  had  entered  on,  in  order  to  stop 
you.  But  in  vain,  for  some  months  after  you  authorized  from 
yourself  a  periodical  review  in  Genoa  to  publish  another  letter, 
that  has  been  the  cause  of  so  much  vexation  to  you  and  me. 
Lastly,  during  your  last  sojourn  at  Rome  I  made  you  serious  ob- 
servations and  even  rather  strong  reproaches  on  the  false  position 
you  were  placed  in,  on  account  of  your  imprudence ;  but  you 
had  scarcely  arrived  in  Paris  when  you  published,  under  your 
own  signature,  a  letter  deplored  by  all,  even  by  your  friends. 

*'  Lately,  your  presence  and  speech  at  the  Peace  League  have 
caused  as  great  scandal  in  Catholic  Europe  as  happened  about 
six  years  ago  on  the  occasion  of  your  speech  at  a  meeting  in 
Paris.  You  have,  beyond  doubt,  given  some  reason  for  such  re- 
criminations by  some  bold,  obscure,  and  imprudent  phrases. 

*'  I  have  done  all  that  I  could  up  to  the  present  to  defend  and 
save  you.  To-day  I  must  think  of  the  interests  and  honor  of  our 
holy  order,  which,  unknown  to  yourself,  you  compromise. 

"  You  write  me  from  Paris,  November  19, 1868 :  '  I  avoid  mix- 
ing the  Paris  Convent  and  the  Order  of  Mount  Carmel  with  these 
matters.'  Let  me  say  to  you,  my  dear  father,  that  this  is  an  illu- 
sion.   You  are  a  monk,  and  bound  to  your  superiors  by  solemn 

2* 


34  INTEODUCTION. 

V0W3.  We  have  to  answer  for  you  before  God  and  man,  and 
consequently  have  to  take  the  same  measures  in  your  regard  as 
in  that  of  other  monks,  when  your  conduct  is  prejudicial  to  your 
soul  and  our  Order. 

"Already,  in  France,  Belgium,  and  even  here,  some  of  the 
bishops,  clergy,  and  faithful  arc  blaming  the  superiors  of  our 
Order  for  not  taking  certain  measures  in  your  regard,  and  it  is 
concluded  that  there  is  no  authority  in  our  congregation,  or  that 
it  shares  in  your  opinions  and  course  of  action.  I  do  not  certainly 
regret  the  course  I  have  followed,  up  to  the  present,  in  regard  to 
you ;  but  matters  are  arrived  at  such  a  point  that  I  would  com- 
promise my  conscience  and  the  entire  Order  if  I  do  not  take 
more  efficacious  measures  in  this  matter  than  I  have  done  in  the 
past.  Consider,  therefore,  dear  and  reverend  father,  that  you  are 
a  monk,  that  you  have  made  solemn  vows,  and  that  by  the  vow 
of  obedience  you  are  bound  to  your  superiors  by  a  lien  as  strong 
as  that  which  binds  the  ordinary  priest  to  his  bishop.  I  can, 
therefore,  no  longer  tolerate  your  continuing  to  compromise  the 
entire  Order  by  your  speeches  or  writings,  no  more  than  I  can  tol- 
erate our  holy  habit  appearing  at  meetings  that  are  not  in  har- 
mony with  our  profession  as  Barefooted  Carmelites.  Therefore, 
in  the  interest  of  your  soul  and  of  our  holy  Order,  I  order  you 
formally,  by  this  present,  not  in  the  future  to  print  any  letters  or 
speech ;  to  speak  outside  the  churches ;  to  be  present  at  the 
Chambers ;  to  take  no  part  in  the  Peace  League,  or  any  other 
meeting  which  has  not  an  exclusively  Catholic  and  religious 
object.     I  hope  you  will  obey  Avith  docility,  and  even  with  love. 

"  Now  let  me  speak  to  you  with  an  open  heart,  as  a  father  to 
his  son.  I  see  j^ou  entered  on  an  extremely  dangerous  path, 
which,  despite  your  present  intentions,  may  conduct  you  where 
to-day  you  may  deplore  to  arrive.  Arrest  yourself,  then,  my  dear 
son;  hear  the  voice  of  your  father  and  friend,  who  speaks  to  you 
with  a  heart  broken  with  sorrow.  With  this  view,  you  would 
do  well  to  retire  to  one  of  the  convents  in  the  Province  of  Avig- 
non, there  to  repose  yourself,  and  perform  the  retreat  which  I 
dispensed  you  from  last  year  on  account  of  your  duties. 
Meditate  in  solitude  on  the  great  truths  of  religion — not  to  preach 
them,  but  for  the  profit  of  your  soul.  Ask  light  from  heaven, 
with  a  contrite  and  humble  heart.  Address  yourself  to  the  Holy 
Virgin,  to  our  father  Saint  Joseph,  and  to  our  seraphic  mother 


INTRODUCTION.  35 

St.  Theresa.  A  fatlicr  can  well  address  these  words  to  his  son, 
although  he  be  a  great  orator.  It  is  a  very  serious  question  for 
you,  and  for  us  all.  I  pray  to  the  Saviour  that  He  may  deign  to 
accord  you  his  light  and  grace.  I  recommend  myself  to  your 
pra^-^ers,  and  give  you  my  benediction,  and  I  am  your  very 
humble  servant, 

"Fii.  Dominique  de  Saint  JosEni, 

*'  8iipenor-Qeneraiy 

This  letter,  in  its  tone  unci  purpose,  was  so  entirely  at 
variance  with  the  sentiments  of  almost  paternal  benev- 
olence theretofore  uniformly  manifested  by  the  General 
to  Father  llyacinthe,  that  it  was  obvious  tliat  lie  was 
acting  under  a  pressure  which  he  could  not  resist. 
Hence  the  curious  inconsistencies  of  it  as  a  measure  of 
discipline.  Tliough  forbidden  to  print  any  letters  or 
speeches;  to  speak  outside  ilie  churches;  to  be  present 
at  the  deliberations  of  tlie  Legislative  Chambers;  or  to 
take  part  in  any  public  meeting  except  for  some  ex- 
clusively Catholic  object,  he  was  privileged  to  retain  his 
high  rank  in  liis  Order;  to  hold  on  to  his  position 
as  superior  of  the  Convent  at  Paris;  to  remain  one  of 
the  four  Members  of  the  Council  of  the  Province;  and 
to  continue  to  preach,  as  usual,  at  Notre-Dame.  Of 
these  privileges,  however.  Father  llyacinthe  did  not 
think  it  his  duty  to  avail  himself.  The  letter  he  had 
received  was,  as  he  believed,  a  blow  aimed  by  the  Jesu- 
its, through  him,  at  the  vitals  of  the  Christian  Church. 
It  proved  to  him  that  in  tlie  present  state  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  and  especially  under  the  rule  of 
monastic  discipline,  the  Evangelical  Word  was  not  free. 
It  gave  him  an  occasion,  by  which  he  deemed  it  his 
duty  to  i)rofit,  "to  protest  as  a  Christian  and  a  priest 
against  those  doctrines  and  practices  which  call  them- 
selves Ilomp;n  but  are  not  Christian," 


36  INTRODUCTION. 

On  the  20tli  of  September,  Father  Hyacinthe  ad- 
dressed the  following  reply  to  his  General  at  Eome; 
and  on  the  same  day  he  abandoned  his  Convent  and 
the  garb  of  his  Order,  thereby  protesting,  by  act  as  well 
as  by  speech,  against  the  abuse  of  ecclesiastical  power, 
of  which  he  felt  that  he  was  the  victim. 

To  THE  Reverend  the  General  of  the  Order  of  Bare- 
footed Carmelites,  Rome. 

Very  Beverend  Father :  During  the  five  years  of  my  rainistiy 
at  Notre-Dame,  Paris,  notwithstanding  the  open  attacks  and 
secret  misrepresentations  of  which  I  have  been  the  object,  your 
confidence  and  esteem  have  never  for  a  moment  failed  me.  I 
retain  numerous  testimonials  of  this,  written  by  your  own  hand, 
and  which  relate  as  vrell  to  my  preaching  as  to  myself.  "What- 
ever may  occur,  I  shall  keep  this  in  grateful  remembrance. 

To-day,  however,  by  a  sudden  shift,  the  cause  of  which  I  do 
not  look  for  in  your  heart,  but  in  the  intrigues  of  a  party  omnip- 
otent at  Rome,  you  find  fault  with  what  you  have  encouraged, 
blame  what  you  have  approved,  and  demand  that  I  shall  make 
use  of  such  language,  or  preserve  such  a  silence,  as  would  no 
longer  be  the  entire  and  loj'al  expression  of  my  conscience. 

I  do  not  hesitate  a  moment.  With  speech  falsified  by  an  order 
from  my  superior,  or  mutilated  by  enforced  utterances,  I  could 
not  again  enter  the  pulpit  of  Notre-Dame.  I  express  my  regrets 
for  this  to  the  intelligent  and  courageous  bishop,  who  placed  me 
and  has  maintained  me  in  it  against  the  ill-will  of  the  men  of 
whom  I  have  just  been  speaking.  I  express  my  regrets  for  it  to 
the  imposing  audience  which  there  surrounded  me  with  its  atten- 
tion, its  sympathies — I  had  almost  said,  with  its  friendship.  I 
should  be  worthy  neither  of  the  audience,  nor  of  the  bishop,  nor 
of  my  conscience,  nor  of  God,  if  I  could  consent  to  play  such  a 
part  in  their  presence. 

I  withdraw  at  the  same  time  from  the  convent  in  which  I 
dwell,  and  which,  in  the  new  circumstances  which  have  befallen 
me,  has  become  to  me  a  prison  of  the  soul.  In  acting  thus  I  am 
hot  unfaithful  to  my  vows.  I  have  promised  monastic  obedi- 
ence—but  within  the  limits  of  an  honest  conscience,  and  of  the 


INTRODUCTION.  37 

dignity  of  my  person  and  ministry,  I  have  promised  it  under 
favor  of  that  higher  law  of  justice,  the  "roj-al  law  of  liberty," 
which  is,  according  to  the  apostle  James,  the  proper  law  of  the 
Christian. 

It  was  the  most  untrammelled  enjoyment  of  this  holy  liberty 
that  I  came  to  seek  in  the  cloister,  now  more  than  ten  years  ago, 
under  the  impulse  of  an  enthusiasm  pure  from  all  worldly  calcu- 
lation— I  dare  not  add,  free  from  all  youthful  illusion.  If,  in 
return  for  my  sacrifices,  I  to-day  am  offered  chains,  it  is  not 
merely  my  right,  it  is  my  duty  to  reject  them. 

This  is  a  solemn  hour.  The  Church  is  passing  through  one  of 
the  most  violent  crises — one  of  the  darkest  and  most  decisive — 
of  its  earthly  existence.  For  the  first  time  in  three  hundred 
3^ears,  an  (Ecumenical  Council  is  not  only  summoned,  but  de- 
clared necessary.  These  are  the  expressions  of  the  Holy  Father. 
It  is  not  at  such  a  moment  that  a  preacher  of  the  gospel,  were  he 
the  least  of  all,  can  consent  to  hold  his  peace,  like  the  "  dumb 
dogs"  of  Israel — treacherous  guardians,  whom  the  prophet  re- 
proaches because  they  could  not  bark.  Caiies  muti,  non  valcnies 
latrare. 

The  saints  are  never  dumb.  I  am  not  one  of  them,  but  I  nev- 
ertheless know  that  I  am  come  of  that  ^iock—fiUi  sanctorum  su- 
mus — and  it  has  ever  been  my  ambition  to  place  my  steps,  my 
tears,  and,  if  need  were,  my  blood,  in  the  footprints  where  they 
have  left  theirs. 

I  lift  up,  then,  before  the  Holy  Father  and  before  the  Council, 
my  protest  as  a  Christian  and  a  priest  against  those  doctrines  and 
practices  which  call  themselves  Roman,  but  are  not  Christian, 
and  which,  making  encroachments  ever  bolder  and  more  deadly, 
tend  to  change  the  constitution  of  the  Church,  the  substance  as 
well  as  the  form  of  its  teaching,  and  even  the  spirit  of  its  piety. 
I  protest  against  the  divorce,  not  less  impious  than  mad,  which 
men  are  struggling  to  accomplish  between  the  Church,  which  is 
our  mother  for  eternity,  and  the  society  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, whose  sons  we  are  for  time,  and  toward  which  we  have 
also  both  duties  and  affections.  I  protest  against  that  opposition, 
more  radical  and  frightful  yet,  which  sets  itself  against  human 
nature,  attacked  and  revolted  by  these  false  teachers  in  its  most 
indestructible  and  holiest  aspirations.  I  protest  above  all  against 
the  sacrilegious  perversion  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God  him- 


38  INTEODUCTION. 

self,  the  spirit  and  the  letter  of  which,  alike,  are  trodden  under 
foot  by  the  Pharisaism  of  the  new  law. 

It  is  my  most  profound  conviction,  that  if  France  in  particular, 
and  the  Latin  races  in  general,  are  delivered  over  to  anarchy, 
social,  moral,  and  religious,  the  principal  cause  of  it  is  to  be 
found — not,  certainly,  in  Catholicism  itself — but  in  the  way  in 
which  Catholicism  has  for  a  long  time  past  been  understood  and  ■ 
practised. 

I  appeal  to  the  Council  now  about  to  assemble,  to  seek  reme- 
dies for  our  excessive  evils,  and  to  apply  them  alike  with  energy 
and  gentleness.  But  if  fears  which  I  am  loth  to  share,  should 
come  to  be  realized — if  that  august  assembly  should  have  no 
more  of  liberty  in  its  deliberations  than  it  has  already  in  its  prep- 
aration— if,  in  one  word,  it  should  be  robbed  of  the  characteristic 
essential  to  an  (Ecumenical  Council — I  would  cry  to  God  and 
men  to  demand  another,  really  assembled  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  not 
in  the  spirit  of  party — really  representing  the  Church  universal, 
not  the  silence  of  some  and  the  constraint  of  others.  "  For  the 
hurt  of  the  daughter  of  my  people  am  I  hurt.  I  am  black.  As- 
tonishment hath  taken  hold  on  me.  Is  there  no  balm  in  Gilead — 
is  there  no  physician  there  ?  Why  then  is  not  the  health  of  the 
daughter  of  my  people  recovered  ?" — Jeremiah,  viii.  21,  22. 

And,  finally,  I  appeal  to  Thy  tribunal,  O  Lord  Jesus !  Ad  tuum, 
Domiiie  Jesu,  tribunal  appello.  It  is  in  Thy  presence  that  I  write 
these  lines ;  it  is  at  Thy  feet,  after  having  prayed  much,  pon- 
dered much,  suffered  much,  and  waited  long — it  is  at  Thy  feet 
that  I  subscribe  them.  1  have  this  confidence  concerning  them, 
that,  however  men  may  condemn  them  upon  eartli.  Thou  wilt 
approve    them  in  heaven.     Living  or  dying,   this  is  enough 

for  me. 

BROTHER  HYACINTHE, 

Superior  of  the  Barefooted  Carmelites 
of  Paris,  Second  Definitor  of  the 
Order  in  the  Province  of  Avignon. 
Paris  :  Passt,  September  20,  18G9. 

This  thrilling  protest  was  promptly  followed  by 
another  letter  from  the  General  at  Rome,  threatening 
him,  if  he  did  not  return  to  his  convent  in  ten  days, 
with  a  privation  of  all  his  dignities  in  the  order  of  Car- 


INTRODUCTION.  39 

melites;  with  the  major  excommunication,  which,  by 
the  way,  he  had  ipso  facto  incurred  on  quitting  the 
convent  witliout  the  authority  of  his  superiors;  and 
with  the  note  of  infamy,  which  is  the  severest  penalty, 
we  believe,  that  the  Church  has  the  power  to  inflict 
upon  non-resident  offenders.    This  letter  ran  as  follows : 

Rome,  Sept.  2G. 
Reverend  Father  :  Your  letter  of  the  20tli  onl}^  reached  me 
yesterday.  You  will  easily  imagine  how  deeply  it  afflicted  me, 
and  with  what  bitterness  it  filled  my  soul.  I  was  far  from  ex- 
pecting you  to  fall  to  such  a  depth.  Therefore  my  heart  bleeds 
with  grief,  and  is  filled  with  an  immense  pity  for  you,  and  I  raise 
my  humble  supplications  to  the  God  of  all  Mercies  that  he  may 
enlighten  you,  pardon  you,  and  lead  you  back  from  that  deplo- 
rable and  fatal  path  on  which  you  have  entered.  It  is  very  true, 
my  reverend  father,  that  during  the  last  five  years,  in  spite  of  my 
personal  opinions,  which  are  in  general  contrary  to  yours  on 
many  religious  questions,  as  I  have  more  than  once  expressed  to 
you — in  spite  of  the  counsels  I  have  given  to  you  on  several 
occasions  relative  to  your  preachings,  and  to  which,  excepting  in 
the  case  of  your  Lent  sermons  at  Rome,  you  paid  but  little  atten- 
tion, so  long  as  you  did  not  openly  depart  from  the  limits  im- 
posed by  Christian  prudence  on  a  priest,  and  especially  on  a 
monk,  I  always  manifested  toward  you  sentiments  of  esteem  and 
friendship,  and  encouraged  you  in  your  preachings.  But  if  that 
is  true,  so  also  is  it  that  from  the  moment  in  which  I  perceived 
that  you  were  beginning  to  go  beyond  those  limits,  I  was  forced 
to  begin  on  my  side  to  express  to  you  my  fears,  and  to  mark  to 
you  my  dissatisfaction.  You  must  remember,  my  reverend 
father,  that  I  did  so  especially  last  year  about  the  month  of  Octo- 
ber, when  passing  through  France,  relative  to  a  letter  addressed 
by  you  to  a  Club  in  Paris.  I  then  explained  to  you  what  annoy- 
ance that  writing  had  caused  me.  Your  letters  published  in  Italy 
were  also  very  painful  to  me,  and  also  drew  on  you  from  me  ob- 
servations and  reproaches  when  you  last  visited  Rome.  Lastly, 
your  presence  and  speech  at  the  Ligue  de  la  Paix  filled  up  the 
measure  of  my  apprehensions  and  my  grief,  and  forced  me  to 
write  to  you  the  letter  of  the  22d  of  July  last,  by  which  I  formally 


40  INTRODUCTION. 

ordered  you  in  future  not  to  print  any  letter  or  speech,  to  speak 
in  public  elsewhere  than  in  the  churches,  to  be  present  in  the 
Chambers,  or  to  take  part  in  the  Ligue  de  la  Paiv  or  any  otlier 
meetings  the  obj  ect  of  which  was  not  exclusively  Catholic  and 
religious.  My  prohibition,  as  you  see,  did  not  in  the  least  refer  to 
your  sermons  in  the  pulpit.  On  the  contrary,  I  desired  you  in 
future  to  devote  solely  and  entirely  j^our  talents  and  your  elo- 
quence to  teachings  in  the  Church.  Consequently  it  w^as  with 
painful  surprise  that  I  read  in  your  letter  that  "  you  could  not 
reascend  the  pulpit  at  Notre-Dame  with  language  perverted  by 
dictation  or  mutilated  by  reticence."  You  must  be  aware,  rever- 
end father,  that  I  have  never  forbidden  you  to  preach,  that  I 
have  never  given  you  any  order  or  imposed  any  restriction  on 
your  teachings.  I  only  took  the  liberty  of  giving  to  you  some 
counsels,  and  of  addressing  to  you  some  observations,  especially 
on  the  subject  of  your  last  lectures,  as  in  my  quality  of  Superior 
it  was  my  right  and  my  duty  to  do.  You  were,  consequently,  as 
free  to  continue  your  preachings  at  Paris  or  elsewhere  as  in  pre- 
ceding j'-ears,  before  my  letter  of  22d  July  last,  and  if  you  have 
resolved  not  to  reappear  in  the  pulpit  of  Notre-Dame  de  Paris,  it 
is  voluntary  and  of  your  own  free  will,  and  not  by  virtue  of 
measures  adopted  by  me  toward  you.  Your  letter  of  the  20th 
announces  to  me  that  you  are  about  to  leave  your  monastery  in 
Paris,  I  learn, indeed,  by  the  journals  and  by  private  letters  that 
you  have  cast  off  your  gown  without  any  ecclesiastical  authoriza- 
tion. If  the  fact  is  unfortunately  true,  I  w^ould  remark  to  you,  my 
reverend  father,  that  the  monk  who  quits  his  monastery  and  the 
dress  of  his  Order  without  the  regular  permission  from  the  com- 
petent authority,  is  considered  as  a  real  apostate,  and  is  conse- 
quently liable  to  the  canonical  penalties  mentioned  in  Cap.  Pen- 
culoso.  The  punishment  is,  as  you  are  aware,  the  greater  excom- 
munication, kitce  sententice  ;  and,  according  to  our  rules,  confirmed 
by  the  Holy  See,  part  iii.,  chap,  xxxv.,  No.  12,  those  who  leave 
the  community  without  authorization  incur  the  greater  excom- 
munication ipso  facto  and  the  note  of  infamy.  Qui  a  congregatione 
recedunt  prceter  apostasiam, ipso  f ado  excommunicatioium  et  infamim 
notam  incurrunt.  As  your  Superior,  and  in  accordance  with  the 
prescriptions  of  the  Apostolic  decrees,  w^hich  order  me  to  employ 
even  censure  to  bring  you  back  to  the  bosom  of  the  Order  you 
have  so  deplorably  abandoned,!  am  under  the  necessity  of  calling- 


INTEODUCTION.  41 

on  you  to  return  to  the  monastery  in  Paris  wliicli  )^ou  have 
quitted  within  ten  days  from  the  date  of  tlie  present  letter;  ob- 
serving to  you  that  if  you  do  not  obey  this  order  witliin  the  time 
stated,  you  will  be  deprived  canonically  of  all  the  charges  you 
hold  in  the  Order  of  Barefooted  Carmelite  Monks,  and  will  re- 
main under  the  censure  established  by  the  common  law  and  by 
our  rules.  May  you,  my  reverend  father,  listen  to  our  voice  and 
to  the  cry  of  your  conscience ;  may  you  promptly  and  seriously 
descend  within  yourself,  see  the  depth  of  your  fall,  and  by  a  heroic 
resolution  manfully  recover  yourself,  repair  the  great  scandal  you 
have  caused,  and  by  that  means  console  the  Church,  your  mother, 
you  have  so  much  afflicted.  That  is  the  most  sincere  and  ardent 
desire  of  my  heart ;  it  is  also  that  which  your  afflicted  friends, 
and  m3^self,  your  father,  ask  with  all  the  fervor  of  our  souls  of 
God  Almighty — of  God,  so  full  of  mercy  and  goodness. 

Brother  Domlnique, 

of  St.  Joseph. 

Of  the  same  date  with  the  preceding  letter  from  the 
General  of  the  Carmelites  is  the  following  letter  ad- 
dressed to  Father  Hyacinthe  by  Dupanloup,  Bishop  of 
Orleans,  his  friend  and  the  friend  of  his  friends  in 
France : 

"Orleans,  Sept.  25,1869. 
"  My  Dear  Colleague  :  The  veiy  moment  I  learnt  from  Paris 
what  you  were  upon  the  point  of  doing,  I  endeavored,  as  you 
know,  to  save  you  at  all  costs  from  what  could  not  but  be  for  you 
a  great  fault  and  a  great  misfortnne,  as  well  as  a  profound  sorrow 
for  the  Church;  that  very  moment,  at  night,  I  sent  your  old 
schoolfellow  and  friend  to  stop  you  if  possible.  But  it  was  too 
late;  the  scandal  had  been  consummated,  and  henceforth  j^ou 
can  measure  by  the  grief  of  all  the  friends  of  the  Church,  and  the 
joy  of  alt  her  enemies,  the  evil  you  have  done.  I  can  only  pray 
to  God  now,  and  implore  you  to  stop  upon  the  brink  you  have 
reached,  which  leads  to  abysses  the  troubled  eye  of  your  soul  has 
not  seen.  You  have  suffered — I  know  it ;  but  allow  me  to  say  it, 
Father  Lacordaire  and  Father  Ravignan  suffered,  I  know,  more 
than  you,  and  they  rose  higher  in  patience  and  strength,  through 


42  INTRODUCTION. 

love  of  the  Churcli  and  Jesus  Christ.  How  was  it  you  did  not 
feel  the  wrong  you  were  doing  the  Church,  your  mother,  by  these 
accusations,  and  the  wrong  you  are  doing  Jesus  Christ  by  placing 
yourself  as  you  do  alone  before  Him  in  contempt  of  His  Church  ? 
But  I  would  fain  hope,  and  I  do  hope,  that  it  will  only  be  a  mo- 
mentary aberration.  Return  among  us ;  after  causing  the  Catholic 
world  this  sorrow,  give  it  a  great  consolation  and  a  great  example. 
Go  and  throw  yourself  at  the  feet  of  the  Holy  Father.  His  arms 
will  be  open  to  you,  and  in  clasping  you  to  his  paternal  heart  he 
will  restore  to  you  the  peace  of  your  conscience  and  the  honor 
of  your  life.  Accept  from  him  who  was  your  Bishop,  and  who 
will  never  cease  to  love  you,  this  testimony  and  these  counsels 
of  a  true  and  religious  affection. 

"Felix,  Bishop  of  Orleans." 

To  this  letter  Father  Hyacinthe  replied  as  follows : 

"  MoNSEiGNEUR :  I  am  much  affected  by  the  sentiment  which 
has  dictated  the  letter  you  have  done  me  the  honor  to  write,  and 
I  am  veiy  grateful  for  the  prayers  which  you  make  on  my  behalf; 
but  I  can  accept  neither  the  reproaches  nor  the  counsels  which 
you  address  to  me.  That  which  you  call  the  commission  of  a 
great  fault,  I  regard  as  the  fulfilment  of  a  grand  duty.  Accept, 
Monseigneur,  the  most  respectful  sentiments,  with  which  I  re- 
main, in  Jesus  Christ  and  in  His  Church,  your  veiy  humble  and 

obedient  servant, 

"Frere  Hyacinthe. 
''Paris,  Sept.  26,  1869." 

The  ten  days'  limit  prescribed  for  his  return  to  the 
convent  expired  on  the  9th  of  October.  On  that  day 
Father  Hyacinthe  embarked  on  board  the  steamer  Pe- 
reire  for  New  York. 

On  the  18th  of  that  month  the  heads  of  the  Order 
held  a  meeting  at  Eome,  and  pronounced  the  following 
sentence  upon  their  insubordinate  brother: 

"  The  term  fixed  by  the  Rev.  Father,  the  General  in  Chief  of 
the  Barefooted  Carmelites,  for  Father  Hyacinthe,  of  the  Immacu- 


INTRODUCTION.  43 

late  Conception,  provincial  definer,  Superior  of  the  House  in  Paris, 
to  return  to  said  convent,  having  expired — having  examined  the 
papers  and  authentic  proofs  that  said  Fatlier  Hyacinthe  has  not 
yet  returned  to  his  convent,  the  superior  authority  of  the  Order, 
by  decree  dated  October  18, 1869,  has  deposed  Father  Hyacinthe 
of  the  Immaculate  Conception  from  all  the  charges  with  which 
he  was  invested  by  the  Order,  declaring  him  besides  attainted  by 
his  apostasy,  and  under  the  major  excommunication,  as  well  as 
all  other  censures  and  ecclesiastical  penalties  denounced  by  the 
common  law  and  by  the  Constitution  of  the  Order  against  apos- 
tates." 

Such  is  an  imperfect  outline  of  tlie  processes  by  wliicli 
one  of  the  most  gifted  and  meritorious  officers  of  the 
Latin  Church  has  been  provoked  to  revolt  against  his 
ecclesiastical  superiors,  and  deliberately  incur  the  se- 
verest penalties  which  are  reserved  for  such  insubordi- 
nation. To  ns  it  seems  incredible  that  any  of  the  acts 
imputed  to  him  by  his  enemies  should  have  exposed  him 
to  the  censure,  still  less  to  the  persecutions,  of  any  soci- 
ety of  professing  Christians.     Let  us  recapitulate  them : 

1.  In  one  of  his  discourses  he  treated  the  Revolution 
of  1789  as  a  political  and  social  necessity. 

2.  In  another  he  denounced  Pharisaism  as  in  the 
Church,  as  Jesus  Christ  had  done  before  him. 

3.  In  defending  himself  from  an  aspersion  upon  his 
charity  toward  persons  having  different  religious  views 
from  his,  he  intimated  that  there  were  Catholics  who 
mourned  the  disappearance  of  the  Inquisition  and  the 
Dragonnades,  a  statement  fully  confirmed  by  the  Ency- 
clical letter  of  1864. 

4.  In  a  private  note  to  a  friend,  he  stated  that  the 
Catholics  who  were  trying  to  identify  the  fortunes  of  the 
Church  with  those  of  a  disreputable  woman  who  had 
been  just  expelled  from  the  throne  of  Spain,  were  drag- 
ging the  Church  through  blood  and  mire. 


4A  -  INTRODUCTION. 

5.  He  quoted  a  letter  written  by  the  Pope  in  1848 
to  the  Emperor  of  Austria,  which  favored  Italian 
unity. 

6.  He  proclaimed  that  Jews  and  Protestants,  as  well 
as  Catholics,  came  within  the  pale  of  an  enlightened 
Christian  charity. 

7.  He  always  preached  a  religion  in  sympathy  with 
the  progressive  tendencies  of  modern  civilization. 

8.  Finally,  he  persisted  in  being  the  friend  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Paris,  and  refused  to  place  himself  under  the 
direction  of  any  bishop  of  another  diocese. 

We  make  no  account  of  his  abandoning  his  convent 
and  disobeying  the  order  of  his  General  to  return,  for 
those  acts  were  the  logical  consequences  of  the  prior 
offences,  if  the  Church  will  persist  in  regarding  as  of- 
fences the  acts  which  ultimated  in  the  interdict  from 
Eome  of  July  22.  There  is  no  doubt  that  he  violated 
the  laws  of  his  Church  in  quitting  his  convent  without 
permission,  and  that  he  exposed  himself  to  the  penalties 
which  have  been  visited  upon  him  by  the  executive  offi- 
cers of  his  Order.  His  Church  provides  a  mode  of  pro- 
cedure for  the  secularization  of  priests  desiring  to  re- 
nounce their  monastic  vows,  but  Father  Hyacinthe  did 
not  choose  to  avail  himself  of  it.  He  declined  to  recog- 
nize an  authority  which,  as  he  thought,  had  been  abused 
in  his  person,  which  was  degrading  the  priesthood,  cor- 
rupting the  hierarchy,  and  sapping  the  vital  forces  of 
the  Church.  He  thought  it  his  duty  to  stand  to  the 
faith  he  had  conscientiously  espoused,  and  which  he 
believed  Evangelical,  rather  than  succumb  to  what  he 
regarded  as  organized  error  and  pharisaical  oppression. 
It  was  the  duty  of  some  one  to  challenge  the  wolf  Avhich 
in  sheep's  clothing  was  devouring  the  faithful.  He  nat- 
urally enough  concluded  that  there  was  no  fitter  person 


INTRODUCTION.  45 

than  himself  to  do  it.  Nor  in  this  case  was  he  mis- 
taken. His  piety ;  his  well-known  devotion  to  the 
Church;  his  eminent  gifts  of  speech,  which  promised 
him  every  possible  distinction  that  Eome  can  confer, 
and  Avhich  therefore  protect  his  motives  from  degrading 
suspicions,  all  seemed  to.  conspire  to  make  his  the  voice 
that  should  cry  "in  the  wilderness,  to  prepare  the  way 
of  the  Lord  and  make  his  paths  straight." 

Since  Luther,  there  has  been  no  such  signal  revolt 
against  the  authority  of  the  Romish  Hierarchy.  Fene- 
lon  professed  doctrines  which  Louis  XIV.  compelled  the 
Pope  and  his  Cardinals  to  condemn.  Though  Fenelon 
defended  his  Maximes  up  to  the  last  hour  of  the  delibera- 
tions at  Rome  with  unrelenting  earnestness,  the  mo- 
ment Rome  spoke,  though  by  a  bare  majority  of  the 
Cardinals,  he  succumbed  and  publicly  denounced  his 
book  from  the  pulpit  of  his  own  cathedral.  Lammenais 
revolted  against  the  abuses  of  the  Papal  Government, 
but  unhappily  his  religion  had  the  Church,  not  the 
Bible,  for  its  base,  and  he  wandered  away  into  rational- 
ism and  unbelief. 

Lacordaire  hovered  all  his  life  on  the  borders  of  the 
Church,  forever  preaching  a  broader  Christianity  than 
was  tolerated  at  Rome,  always  tormented  with  the  re- 
straints imposed  upon  his  tongue  and  conscience  by  his 
ecclesiastical  Superior,  and  always  in  a  state  of  mental 
and  moral  insubordination  to  the  Papal  hierarchy.  But 
Lacordaire  had  not  the  physical  health  nor  animal  force 
necessary  to  brave  the  consequences  of  an  open  revolt. 
He  was  constitutionally  timid ;  his  monastic  life  had 
gradually  incapacitated  him  for  comprehending  the  vast 
resources  for  such  a  contest,  which  the  living  world 
around  him,  with  the  Divine  blessing,  would  have  sup- 
plied, and  he  succumbed  to  the  rigors  of  ecclesiastical 


46  INTEODUCTION.  • 

discipline  and  to  disease,  induced,  no  doubt,  by  his  in- 
ability to  live  the  complete  life  for  which  he  had  been 
created.  He  fell  a  prey  to  a  sort  of  dry-rot,  which 
fastens,  sooner  or  later,  upon  all  who  commit  their 
consciences  to  the  keeping  of  fellow-sinners,  who  seek 
to  escape  sin  by  fleeing  from  temptation  rather  than  by 
fighting  and  overcoming  it,  and  who  fancy  that  the  best 
way  of  keeping  the  commandments  is  to  spend  all  one's 
time  in  reciting  them. 

The  eloquent  Bishop  of  Orleans  is  also  one  of  these 
representative  men,  too  earnest  and  enlightened  a  Chris- 
tian to  accept  the  perverse  follies  of  the  Syllabus ;  but 
instead  of  taking  his  stand  against  it,  he  set  himself  to 
work,  as  soon  as  it  appeared,  to  prove  that  it  meant 
something  very  different  from  what  it  said,  and  that, 
instead  of  being  in  conflict,  it  was  in  harmony  with  the 
doctrines  proclaimed  at  Malines.  This  disingenuous 
plea  for  the  Papal  Government  was  attributed  by  his 
partisans  to  his  worthy  desire  to  avoid  dissensions  in 
the  Church.  He  preferred  to  see  it  a  prey  to  error 
rather  than  to  schism — to  surrender  the  shepherd's 
crook  to  the  wolf  than  to  have  the  flock  scattered  by 
learning  their  peril. 

The  consequence  is  that  this  gifted  and  admirable 
prelate,  instead  of  remaining  what  his  genius  designed 
him  to  be,  a  controlling  power  in  the  Church  of  Christ, 
has  by  degrees  parted  with  his  birthright,  and  is  now 
the  reluctant  but  unresisting  instrument  of  a  devasta- 
ting Ultramontanism.  Like  Lammenais  and  Lacor- 
daire  and  Fenelon,  he  has  not  proved  equal  to  his  op- 
portunities. Like  them,  "he  rejected  the  command- 
ments of  God  that  he  might  keep  the  traditions  of  the 
elders."    Like  them,  too,  he  has  always  been  toiling  for 


INTRODUCTION.  47 

reforms,  but  e  ccomplisliing  none,  because  lie  had  more 
faith  in  the  C-hurch  than  in  Providence.  "  He  made 
flesh  his  arm." 

It  was  not  so  with  Luther.  Thus  far  it  has  not  been 
so  with  Father  Hyacinthe.  Will  he,  too,  fall  by  the 
way,  or  is  he  to  share  the  reward  reserved  for  those  who 
endure  unto  the  end  ? 

Father  Hyacinthe,  it  is  believed,  has  thus  far  fol- 
lowed his  convictions  faithfully.  When  his  conscience 
told  him  distinctly  that  Roman  theology  was  not  infal- 
lible theology,  he  refused  to  accept  it  as  such ;  when 
his  conscience  told  him  that  the  temporal  power  of  the 
Pope  was  maintained  at  the  expense  of  his  legitimate 
spiritual  influence,  that  it  was  an  element  of  weakness, 
rather  than  of  strength  to  the  Church  of  Christ,  he  re- 
fused any  longer  to  countenance  or  defend  it.  When 
he  found  pontifical  allocutions  and  the  canons  of  coun- 
cils usurping  the  place  and  authority  of  the  Bible  in 
the  Church,  he  chose  to  stay  with  the  Bible  rather  than 
go  with  its  papal  substitute.  In  this  firm  faith  in  God 
and  the  right,  in  this  bold  rejection  of  all  compromises 
with  the  priestliood  of  error,  he  alone  of  all  the  illustri- 
ous reformers  of  Catholicism  since  Luther  holds  an 
apostolic  attitude.    Will  he  maintain  it  ? 

To  surrender  deliberately  and  voluntarily  the  most 
cherished  affections  of  one's  heart  is  a  fearful  trial  for 
any  man.  Few  are  equal  to  it.  With  Father  Hyacinthe 
the  Church  of  Rome  had  represented  all  that  was  most 
pure  and  lovely  on  earth.  His  life  had  been  spent  in 
decorating  it  with  imaginary  charms.  To  his  youthful 
vision  it  was  the  New  Jerusalem  coming  down  from 
God  out  of  heaven,  with  walls  of  jasper,  gates  of 
pearl,  and  streets  of  gold.    He  finally  awoke  from  his 


48  INTRODUCTION. 

illusion,  and  found  that  temptation  and  sin  reap  their 
harvests  at  Eome  as  regularly  as  elsewhere,  and  that 
"  God  alone  is  great." 

Father  Hyacinthe  has  no  quarrel  with  the  Catholic 
Church,  but  with  its  abuses.  He  wisely  thinks  that  its 
maladies,  like  those  of  the  human  system,  are  to  be 
cured  from  within  and  not  from  without;  that  the 
remedy  must  be  applied  to  the  heart,  not  to  the  skin. 
He  does  not,  therefore,  intend  to  abandon  his  Church, 
but  to  labor  for  it.  He  wisely  declines  to  take  refuge 
in  any  other  religious  organization,  for  he  knows  that 
the  vices  of  which  he  complains  in  his  Church  belong 
to  the  universal  human  heart,  and  in  one  shape  or 
another  are  likely  to  present  themselves  in  all  denomi- 
nations. He  has,  therefore,  given  the  world  to  under- 
stand that  what  capacities  of  usefulness  remain  to  him, 
will  be  consecrated  to  the  purification  and  edification  of 
the  Church  in  which  he  was  reared,  and  which  he 
thinks  has  enjoyed,  and  continues  to  enjoy,  at  least  as 
much  of  God's  favor  as  any  other. 

Naturalists  tell  us  that  the  sparrow  abandons  eggs 
which  she  discovers  have  been  handled,  and  refuses  to 
give  life  to  ofi'spring  which  she  feels  herself  too  weak 
to  protect.  The  eagle,  on  the  other  hand,  confident  in 
her  strength,  fights  for  her  ofi'spring;  and  if  one  is 
ravished  from  her  nest,  she  cherishes  the  rest  of  her 
brood  only  the  more  tenderly.  The  soi-disant  liberal 
Catholics  of  Europe  since  Luther,  like  the  sparrow,  take 
counsel  of  their  weakness,  and  as  reformers  have  be- 
gotten nothing ;  have  abandoned  their  convictions,  as 
it  were,  in  the  ^gg.  On  the  other  hand.  Father  Hya- 
cinthe, like  the  eagle,  confiding  in  that  sort  of  strength 
which  renders  the  feeblest  arm  invincible,  is  ready  to 


INTRODUCTION.  49 

figlit  ill  defence  of  his  convictions,  and,  with  the  bless- 
ing of  God,  proposes  to  do  what  he  can  to  deliver  the 
Church  from  its  enemies,  and  open  its  doors  again, 
as  in  the  beginning,  to  all  who  make  the  love  of 
God  and  their  neighbors  the  rule  of  their  lives.  Will 
he,  in  shooting  the  arrow  of  ^God's  deliverance,  "smite 
the  ground  five  or  six  times,"  or  like  the  King  Joash, 
for  want  of  faith,  will  he  smite  only  three  times,  and 
stop? 

Note  by  the  Editor. — Since  the  foregoing  was  written,  the  Bishop 
of  Orleans  has  thrown  some  doubt  over  the  entire  justice  of  pla- 
cing him  in  the  category  of  reformers  who  accomplish  nothing, 
by  a  remarkable  letter  he  has  just  addressed  to  the  clergy  of  his 
diocese,  in  relation  to  the  attempt  making  to  have  the  infallibility 
of  the  Pope  proclaimed  by  the  approaching  Council,  as  a  dogma 
of  the  Church.  It  bears  so  directly  upon,  if  it  does  not  owe  its 
existence  to  the  exemplary  revolt  of  Father  Hyacinthe,  that  we 
have  deemed  it  our  duty  to  lay  it  before  our  readers  in  the  Ap- 
pendix. 

The  Encyclical  of  18(34,  entitled  ''Quanta  Gum','  with  its 
accompanying  "  S3ilabus"  of  propositions  denounced  and  con- 
demned by  the  authority  of  the  Pope,  may  be  found  in  Apple 
ton's  Annual  Cyclopaedia  for  1864 

3 


THE    FAMILY. 


THE    NOTEE-DAME    LECTUKES. 

ADVENT,   1866. 


THE  FAMILY. 


LECTRUE    FIRST. 

December  2, 1866. 


Domestic    Society   in   the    General   Scheme   oi 
Human  SocrETY. 

My  Lord  Archbishop  a^s^d  Gentlemen"  :  It  is 
characteristic  of  the  questions  of  the  present  day,  thai 
they  have  a  tendency  to  pass  out  of  the  domain  of  ideaa 
into  that  of  facts.  Doubtless  this  has  always  been  the 
instinct  of  the  truth ;  but  never  has  that  instinct  been 
so  potent  and  so  urgent  as  now.  As  we  come  down — 
or  up,  if  you  like  it  better — into  the  domain  of  facta 
(for  I  hardly  know  whether  to  speak  of  it  as  an  ascent 
or  as  a  descent  when  we  pass  from  speculation  to  prac- 
tice)— call  it  what  you  please,  when  we  make  our  en- 
trance into  the  realm  of  facts,  the  idea  of  modern  days, 
be  it  true  or  false,  is  not  limited,  in  its  application,  to 
the  individual  fact.    It  spreads  out  over  the  social  fact 

At  the  beginning  of  these  Conferences,  two  years  ago, 
I  strove  to  bring  to  your  notice,  as  the  central  point  of 


54  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

the  religious  controversy  of  tlie  hour,  the  question  of 
the  personality  of  God.  It  was  not  the  infallibility  of 
the  Church,  it  was  not  the  divinity  of  Christ,  or,  at 
least,  it  was  not  the  Church,  nor  Christ,  except  as  these 
may  be  considered  as  the  affirmation  or  negation  of  the 
personality  of  God.  That  was  the  theoretical  question  ; 
it  occupied  us  for  a  year.  But  the  theoretical  ques- 
tion was  followed  by  its  practical  corollary,  and  that 
corollary  (which  we  studied  last  year)  was  morality, 
human  or  divine ;  morality,  at  the  same  time  free  and 
subject,  or  morality  independent  of  God,  and,  there- 
fore, fallen — ^^independent  morality ^^  a  doctrine  most 
weak  in  a  scientific  point  of  view  and  in  the  field  of 
logical  debate,  but  most  potent  in  the  domain  of  facts, 
because  it  is  a  radical  doctrine,  and  because  it  is  the 
only  practical  means  of  finally  emancipating  men*s 
consciences,  and  of  "exorcising,"  as  some  one  calls  it, 
"  the  ghost  of  the  absolute." 

Such,  then,  is  the  practical  conclusion  of  the  religious 
question  as  it  affects  the  individual.  But,  as  I  have  said, 
the  affairs  of  the  individual  bring  us  to  the  affairs  of 
society,  and  so  in  our  last  Conference  we  were  led  to 
remark,  as  the  conclusion  from  the  doctrine  of  the 
personality  of  God,  and  the  doctrine  of  right  and 
wrong,  as  founded  upon  God — the  Sovereignty  of  God 
over  Society.     ' 

This  is  the  subject  to  which  we  come  this  year,  the 
examination  of  which  I  propose  to  continue  from  year 
to  year,  unless  something  in  outward  circumstances  or 
in  the  progress  of  my  own  thoughts  (which  I  wish  to 
preserve  as  free  as  your  own)  should  occur  to  derange 
this  plan,  which  I  propose,  but  to  which  I  do  not  bind 
myself. 

This  year,  I  intend  to  talk  to  you  about  the  relations 


THE  FAMILY.  55 

between  religion  and  domestic  society — the  first  and  most 
necessary  of  all  forms  of  human  society. 

I  should  have  to  apologize  for  recurring,  in  this  pul- 
pit, to  a  subject  which  has  been  already  treated  here 
with  a  superiority  and  ardor  which  no  one  can  have 
forgotten ;  but  the  family  is  one  of  those  inexhaustible 
subjects  on  which  there  is  always  something  left  to 
glean,  even  after  the  best  of  harvesters. 

I  would  only  notify  you,  gentlemen,  that  the  work 
which  I  mean  to  undertake  is  rather  that  of  exposition 
than  of  controversy.  I  will  not  refute,  point  by  point, 
everything  that  has  been  said  against  the  Christian 
constitution  of  the  family.  I  shall  do  this  only  as  I 
may  be  brought  to  it  by  the  current  of  my  thought  or 
speech.  I  prefer,  in  general,  to  set  before  you,  in  its 
completeness,  its  simplicity,  its  grandeur,  what  the 
family  is  when  organized  according  to  the  Christian 
conception,  under  the  sovereignty  of  the  Father  who  is 
in  Heaven  and  the  father  who  is  on  the  earth.  This 
exposition,  of  itself — if  I  am  not  too  far  below  my  task — 
will  be  the  best  of  refutations. 

At  this  very  moment  all  eyes  are  turned  toward  that 
centre  of  the  kingdom  and  visible  sovereignty  of  God 
upon  earth — Eome !  If  I  were  undertaking  a  contro- 
versy against  those  who  are  talking  so  bravely  every  day 
of  how  religious  questions  have  lost  their  power  of  in- 
teresting and  exciting  the  men  of  our  time,  I  should 
ask  the  secret  of  this  grand  and  solemn  expectation, 
and  the  reason  why  so  much  terror  is  prevailing  along- 
side of  so  much  hope — why  there  is  so  much  bitterness 
and  so  much  love  at  once.  But  it  is  not  controversy 
that  I  have  undertaken.  I  do  not  wish  to  put  to  the 
question  either  men  or  things.  I  would  only  collect 
my  thoughts  and  compose  my  heart,  before  commencing, 


56  DISCOUESES   OF   FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

in  that  sense  of  responsibility  which  weighs  upon  the 
preacher  of  the  gospel  at  this  hour.  And  I  would  stay 
myself,  by  this  thought  and  this  heart,  on  that  ever- 
lasting throne  which  is  all  the  more  immovable  by  so 
much  as  it  is  the  more  assailed,  and  all  the  nearer  to  its 
triumph  by  so  much  as  it  seems  nearer  its  ruin. 

My  lord  archbishop,  there  come  to  my  mind  the  sim- 
ple and  noble  words  which  you  once  said  to  me :  "  The 
Episcopacy  is  a  chain  which  winds  round  the  globe." 
That  which  I  now  salute,  in  your  own  beloved  and 
honored  person,  is  the  whole  episcopate — it  is  its  chief, 
the  bishop  of  bishops,  and  the  father  of  fathers.  There- 
fore it  was,  that,  just  now,  as  I  bowed  my  head  for  that 
benediction  which  is  no  vain  ceremony  (there  are  no  vain 
ceremonies  in  God's  church) — the  benediction  of  light, 
wisdom,  and  power — I  was  thrilled  with  a  twofold  rev- 
erence and  tenderness ;  first  because  it  is  from  yourself, 
my  lord,  and  because,  at  the  same  time,  it  is  from 
him. 

Paet  First. — The  Bonds  of  Society, 

I  approach  then,  gentlemen,  the  religious  side  of.  social 
questions.  But  before  treating  of  any  particular  form 
of  society,  I  must  define  the  meaning  of  society  in  gen- 
eral. It  is  not  precisely  the  family,  neither  is  it  the  na- 
tion, it  is  not  even  the  church — it  is  simply  society !  I 
find  myself  in  the  presence  of  a  great  idea ;  one  of  those 
ideas  which  carry  the  greatest  power  and  fascination 
in  this  century,  and,  since  I  belong  in  this  century  my- 
self, I  must  needs  add,  one  of  those  ideas  which  have 
been  the  passion  of  my  youth,  and  which  are  to  be  the 
passion  of  my  riper  years.  It  is  the  idea  of  humanity, 
the  fellowship  of  all  men  with  all  men,  of  all  nations 
with  all  nations,  of  mankind  with  itself.     I  salute,  then, 


THE  FAMILY.  57 

universal  society,  I  salute  humanity — not  only  in  my 
own  behalf,  but  in  behalf  of  every  one  of  you. 

[The  speaker,  considering  this  natural  and  universal  society  of 
the  human  race,  to  which  every  man  belongs  by  the  law  of  his 
existence,  and  apart  from  any  consent  or  refusal  of  his  will,  first 
propounds  this  question :  "  What  is  it  which  thus  unites  man  to 
his  kind  ?"  His  answer  to  this  qi^estion  is  briefly  summed  up  as 
follows :] 

It  is  a  triple  bond — a  physical  bond,  an  intellectual 
bond,  and  a  moral  bond — blood,  reason,  virtue. 

1st.  Individual  men  are  joined  together  in  a  natural 
and  universal  society  by  the  bond  of  a  common  origin — 
blood. 

Human  personality  has  its  seat  in  the  soul,  but  its 
base  in  the  body ;  and  in  the  view  of  science,  as  well 
as  of  revelation,  "  the  life  is  in  the  blood."* 

If  we  believed  in  the  materialistic  school,  the  blood, 
in  man,  would  be  a  matter  of  purely  physical  trans- 
mission, as  in  the  brute,  in  whose  exalted  image  they  are 
disposed  to  make  us,  since  they  will  no  longer  allow  that 
we  are  the  image  of  God.  But  it  is  not  so  :  there  is  a 
certain  moral  quality  in  the  blood  of  man,  and  when  it 
has  passed  into  our  veins  from  two  hearts  joined  to- 
gether in  love,  it  has  created  the  bonds  of  society. 

It  has  created  the  fa7nil2/,  that  holy  thing  unknown  to 
the  inferior  races. 

It  has  created  the  country,  the  nation — in  the  normal 
constitution  of  which  it  fulfils  so  great  a  part. 

And  above  the  family  and  the  country,  including  both 
the  one  and  the  other,  as  the  genus  contains  the  species, 
blood  has  created  Immmiity;  for  in  spite  of  that  science 
which  calls  itself  humanitarian  and  positive,  but  is  nei- 

*  Leviticus,  xyii.  14. 
3* 


58  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

tlier,  it  is  by  a  common  blood  that  humanity  comes  to 
be  one  single  race.  "God  hath  made  of  one  blood  all 
nations  of  men,  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth."* 

2.  Individual  men  are  joined  together  in  natural  and 
universal  society  by  the  bond  of  common  reason. 

If  there  is  a  physical  bond  between  all  men,  there  is 
also  a  metaphysical  one.  If  it  is  one  and  the  same 
blood  of  Adam  that  courses  in  the  veins  of  our  body, 
so  it  is  one  and  the  same  ray  of  light,  one  and  the  same 
reason  that  irradiates  our  soul.  Doubtless  reason  is  an 
individual  matter,  as  regards  our  possession  of  it :  it  is 
individual  as  regards  the  good  or  bad  use  which  we 
make  of  it;  but  it  is  impersonal  in  the  object  it  reveals 
to  us — truth — and  in  the  laws  it  imposes  on  us.  Now, 
this  impersonal  reason,  the  reflection  in  each  indi- 
vidual intellect  of  God's  own  word,  is  invariable. 
"  Truth  this  side  of  the  Pyrenees,  error  the  other  side," 
said  Pascal.  Doubtless  there  are  varying  forms  of  the 
one  invariable  truth,  which  change  on  one  side  of  the 
mountains  or  the  other.  There  are  garments  of  truth 
that  grow  old  and  are  laid  aside,  and  must  be  renewed 
with  the  generations  and  the  ages.  But  the  body  of  the 
truth  remains  always  the  same,  ever  fresh  and  pure  and 
beautiful.  Invariable,  the  reason  which  enlightens  me 
is  also  universal.  Your  axiom  is  my  axiom,  my  law 
your  law.  I  know,  in  advance  of  all  experience,  that 
man,  wherever  I  may  meet  him,  will  have  the  same  first 
principles  as  myself,  because  he  is  illumined  with  the 
same  light :  "  The  Word  was  the  true  Light,  which 
lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world." f  By 
reason,  then,  as  w^ell  as  by  blood,  there  exists  a  natural 
and  universal  fellow^ship  which  w^e  call  humanity. 

3.  Individual  men,  finally,  are  united  in  a  natural  and 

*  Acts,  xvii.  26  t  John,  i.  9. 


THE   FAMILY.  59 

universal  fellowship  by  the  bond  of  one  and  the  same 
virtue. 

No  little  reproach  has  been  cast  upon  Christianity  for 
practising  personal  virtue,  and  neglecting  social  virtue 
— of  seeking  the  salvation  of  individuals,  and  not  con- 
cerning itself  with  the  salvation  of  humanity.  It  is 
true,  we  are  the  party  of  the  personal  idea,  of  individual 
virtue,  of  individual  salvation.  AVe  claim  that  man  is 
responsible  before  everything,  for  good  or  for  evil,  to  his 
own  conscience.  We  say  that  he  ought  to  do  the  good  and 
shun  the  evil,  apa¥t  from  the  advantage  which  will  ac- 
crue from  it  to  humanity.  "  Seek  first  the  kingdom  of 
God,  the  personal  God,  and  His  righteousness;"  and 
tlien  the  good  of  the  country,  the  good  of  the  human 
race,  "  will  be  added  unto  you ;"  yes,  added,  as  a  clear 
gratuity,  but  it  is  a  gift  which  does  not  come  in  any 
other  way,  and  which  springs  necessarily  from  the  per- 
sonal idea  itself 

What  is  it,  in  fact,  that  is  necessary  in  order  that  I 
may  practise  individual  virtue  and  achieve  my  indi- 
vidual salvation?  I  must  obey  two  great  command- 
ments— ^justice  and  love.  Now  these  two  laws,  which 
maintain  the  distinction  of  persons,  create  at  the  same 
time  between  them  a  tie  more  near  and  sacred  than 
those  of  reason  and  blood.  In  fact,  what  is  justice,  if 
not  a  mutual  care  and  fulfilment,  among  men,  of  their 
rights  and  duties  ?  What  is  love,  if  it  is  not  the  gift  of 
more  than  another's  due,  the  claiming  of  less  than  one's 
own  right ;  a  gift  not  only  outward  but  inward ;  a  gift 
from  the  very  person  itself ;  the  gift  of  each  to  all ;  the 
love  of  the  human  race  ? 

Men,  then,  are  bound  to  men  by  a  threefold  cord  that 
cannot  be  broken— blood,  reason,  virtue. 

The  social  state  is  not,  then,  a  state  of  degeneracy,  as 


60  DISCOUESES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

Rousseau  had  dreamed  ....  and  so  above  the  society  of 
home,  above  civil  society,  above  religious  society,  there  is 
universal  society — the  human  race. 

And  here,  for  one  moment,  on  these  heights  I  pause. 
It  is  good  for  us  to  be  here.  0  sublime,  0  radiant 
heights  !  Heathen  antiquity  had  caught  a  glimpse  of 
you  in  its  dawning  twilight ;  but  it  was  for  Christianity 
alone  to  reveal  you,  and  if  the  philosophy  of  this  age  has 
followed  in  her  train,  it  may  try  in  vain  to  banish  her 
and  cast  her  down  from  thence.  It  can  only  sit  at  her 
feet  as  her  disciple. 

One  glance  more.  Gentlemen,  at  these  heights,  before 
we  leave  them.  These  are  true  Christian  heights — 
these  summits  to  which  the  idea  of  humanity  has  at- 
tained— Christian  in  the  original  light  which  lightens 
them:  "he  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations,"  to 
pojDulate  this  orb  of  earth — Christian  in  the  last  light 
on  which  they  look,  and  which  is  none  other  than  God 
himself 

"Father,"  said  the  true  Redeemer  gf  the  human  race, 
and,  therefore,  its  sole  effectual  organizer,  the  Lord 
JesiiS  Christ,  "  Father,  grant  that  they  may  be  one,  even 
as  we  are  one."*  This  is  our  title  to  the  possession  of 
these  mountain  heights : — Adam,  at  the  beginning,  with 
the  fountain-head  of  his  blood;  God  at  the  end,  with 
the  splendor  of  his  glory ;  and  in  the  midst  humanity. 
"  All  ye  are  brethren,"  said  Christ,  "  for  one  'is  your 
Father,  which  is  in  heaven."  f 

0  that  with  one  bound  I  might  rise  to  loftier  sum- 
mits still !  Is  there  not,  far  away  in  those  higher  re- 
gions, whither  some  of  the  men  of  this  generation  refuse 
to  look — is  there  not  a  reasonable  nature,  a  nature 
wholly  one,  wholly  indivisible,  and  yet  manifold  in  per- 

*  John,  xvii.  2:2.  t  Matthew,  xxiii.  8,  9. 


THE  TAMILY.  61 

sonalitj,  felloAvsliip  of  God  with  God,  of  Father  with 
Son,  of  Father  and  Son  with  Holy  Spirit  ?  0  holy  com- 
monwealth of  eternity,  mysterious  state  wherein  the 
three  Persons  dwell  in  equal  majesty,  in  complete  dis- 
tinctness, in  perfect  unity!  0  God!  Thou  art  the  pro- 
totype of  men,  and  therefore  it  is  that  Thou  hast  made 
us  at  the  same  time  one  in  our  nature  and  manifold  in 
our  persons;  profoundly  distinct  and  yet  profoundly 
one ;  by  nature  free,  by  nature  equal ;  obedient  to  no 
commands  but  such  as  have  their  origin  in  Thee,  and 
venerating,  under  these  borrowed  earthly  majesties  of  the 
Family,  the  State,  and  the  Church,  naught  but  that  sole 
and  supreme  majesty  which  is  in  Thee. 

Part  Secokd. — Tlie  Forms  of  Society, 

[Having  considered  human  society  in  its  general  aspects,  and 
the  bonds  by  which  men  are  joined  together  in  a  natural  and 
universal  solidarity,  the  speaker  proceeds  to  examine  the  princi- 
pal forms  which  society  assumes,  which  are  three  in  number: 
the  family,  or  domestic  society ;  the  nation,  or  civil  society  ;  the 
church,  or  religious  society.] 

1.  The  Family. 

This  is  the  first  form  of  society  in  order  of  time,  and 
I  might  almost  say — for  in  one  sense  it  is  true — in  order 
of  importance.  Domestic  society,  the  natural  fellow- 
ship of  man  with  man,  is  at  the  root  of  the  two  other 
forms  of  society,  w^hich  could  not  exist  without  this, 
and  for  which,  for  a  long  time  at  least,  it  was  a  substi- 
tute. 

Man,  on  coming  into  the  world,  is  confronted  by  two 
most  mysterious  and  mighty  laws — the  law  of  the  sexes 
and  the  law  of  death ;  the  one  divides  him  in  his  own 
nature,  the  other  limits  him  in  his  brief  career.     See, 


62  DISCOUESES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

now,  liow  man,  in  the  progress  of  the  sublime  and  sa- 
cred drama  of  the  family,  shall  get  the  yictory  over  this 
twofold  enemy. 

In  the  married  life,  man  finds  in  his  companion  that 
complement  of  himself — that  better  part  of  his  thought^ 
and  of  his  love  which  had  been  wanting  to  him.  "  It 
is  not  good  for  man  to  be  alone ; — the  twain  shall  be 
one  flesh."*  In  the  relation  of  father,  he  outlives  him- 
self in  the  off'spring  of  his  body  and  his  heart,  in  the 
heir  of  his  blood  and  his  traditions ;  and  through  his 
children  he  enjoys  a  sort  of  earnest  of  immortality  in 
this  world.  Thus  human  life  finds  itself  to  be  organ- 
ized in  domestic  society. 

For  ages,  man  knew  no  other  society  than  this.  The 
father  was  at  once  king  and  priest;  civil  society  and 
religious  society  were  absorbed  in  the  family.  I  open 
humanity's  grand  book,  the  Bible :  it  commences  with 
the  history  of  the  family,  from  the  cradles  of  Eden  to 
the  tents  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob ;  and  of  all  the 
pages  of  human  records,  this  is  without  controversy  the 
sweetest  and  most  sublime. 

Even  at  the  present  day,  if  we  listen  to  the  charming 
tales  of  travellers,  we  learn  that  it  is  still  the  family 
that  reigns  on  the  lofty  table-lands  of  Asia,  among 
those  vast  steppes  which  have  been  most  fitly  called 
"  the  hive  of  nations."  When  the  civilized  nations  have 
found  themselves,  by  the  very  excess  of  civilization, 
carried  down  into  incurable  decline  and  barbarism, 
God  sounds  toward  the  desert  that  hiss  of  which  the 
prophet  speaks  ;t  and  forthwith  from  the  depths  of 
those  solitudes,  behold,  there  troop  forth  upon  their 
fiery  steeds  young  populations,  strong  and  proud, 
grown   lusty  with  the   milk  of  their  wild,  herds,  and 

*  Genesis,  ii.  IS,  24.  t  leaiah,  vii.  18. 


THE  FAMILY.  63 

bearing  beliind  them,  on  the  croups  of  their  horses,  their 
faithful  families,  their  roving  homes.  Whatever  their 
names — Huns,  Tartars,  or  Mongolians — it  matters  not. 
They  are  coming  to  bask  in  that  immortal  sunlight  of 
Christianity  which  awaits  them,  and  to  create  new  civi- 
lizations on  the  ruined  fragments  of  the  old.  Xow 
these  people,  as  travellers  who  have  visited  them  attest, 
have  no  civil  organization,  and  only  a  rude  sort  of  re- 
ligion :  but  they  have  the  family ;  and  far  away  in  those 
providential  climes,  the  family  preserves  a  stock,  full  of 
youthful  vigor  and  of  the  promise  of  the  future. 

2.  The  Nation. 

The  second  form  of  society,  not  natural,  but  artificial, 
since  it  is  man's  own  creation,  is  civil  society. 

When  families  become  multiplied,  there  arise  various 
and  opposing  interests,  manifold  and  conflicting  rights. 
As  in  the  case  of  the  herdsmen  of  Abraham  and  Lot, 
when  there  was  a  strife  between  them,*  it  becomes 
necessary  to  separate  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  or  else  to 
establish  a  common  and  permanent  arbitration.  What- 
ever may  have  been  the  historical  origin  of  civil  soci- 
ety— an  origin  which  must  have  varied  more  or  less 
with  circumstances  of  place  and  time — this  is  the  phil- 
osophical notion  of  them,  and  the  idea  which  constitutes 
and  characterizes  them :  it  is  an  understanding  among 
the  heads  of  families,  representing  the  domestic  societies 
over  which  they  preside,  to  establish  a  common  govern- 
ment, under  some  form  or  other — a  government  which 
is  doubtless  their  own  creation,  but  which  is  conse- 
crated by  the  fact  that  God  is  the  father  of  all  order 
and  all  power.  The  object  of  this  government  is  not  to 
suppress  or  to  create  individual  or  family  rights,  but  to 
regulate  the  manner  of  exercising  all  rights ;  to  extend 

*  GenepiSi  xiii. 


64  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

over  them  the  protection  of  justice,  and  if  necessary, 
the  protection  of  the  sword,  against  all  attack,  whether 
from  without  or  from  within. 

3.  The  Clmrcli. 

When  the  human  race  had  attained  that  culminating 
point  of  the  agesAvhich  St.  Paul  has  called  ^' the  fulness 
of  time" *  religious  society  in  its  perfect  form  was  or- 
ganized. 

Domestic  among  the  patriarchs,  natmicd  among  the 
Jews,  the  Church  was  extended  over  the  whole  human 
race  by  Christ,  and  became  Catholic.  By  right  all 
nations  belong  to  this  Church ;  and  it  is  our  right  to 
hope  that  after  many  struggles,  after  centuries,  perhaps, 
i\\Qfact  will  fully  correspond  to  the  right.  "For  there 
is  neither  Jew  nor  Gentile,"  says  St.  Paul,  "neither 
Greek  nor  Barbarian,  neither  bond  nor  free ;  but  ye  are 
all  one  in  Christ  Jesus.^f 

Such  are  the  three  principal  forms  of  human  society. 

Part  Third. — Relative  Importa7ice  of  Domestic  Society. 

[Under  this  third  head,  in  concluding  the  Lecture,  the  speaker 
considered  domestic  society  in  its  relation  to  civil  and  religious 
society.  He  insisted  especially  upon  this  subject  as  one  of  imme- 
diate importance  at  the  present  time. 

1.  As  respects  civil  and  political  society,  what  is  the 
great  question  of  the  day  ?  I  hesitate  to  pronounce  in 
this  pulpit  a  word  exposed  to  so  many  perils  and  per- 
•"v^rsions;  but  I  must  deal  sincerely  with  language  as 
well  as  with  ideas,  and  I  cannot  but  reply.  Democracy. 
The  great  question  of  the  time  which  affects  all  noble 
minds  and  generous  hearts,  is  democracy,  that  is,  in  the 

*  Galatians,  iv.  4 ;  Ephesians,  i.  10.       t  Romans,  x.  12 ;  Galatians,  iii.  28. 


THE  FAMILY.  65 

honest,  liberal,  legitimate  meaning  of  the  word,  the  ex- 
tension of  civil  and  political  liberties,  the  fullest  par- 
ticipation of  all  citizens  in  the  management  of  public 
affairs,  and,  as  far  as  possible  in  this  poor  land  and 
this  unhappy  planet,  the  goyernment  of  the  country  by 
the  country.  This  is  the  worthy  meaning  of  the  word 
democracy.  Now  I  ask  myself,  why  does  democracy 
remain  so  often  a  dream  that  will  not  be  realized — 
why  ?  It  is  because  men  do  not  remember  to  establish 
it  on  the  foundation  of  the  family. 

There  are  two  formidable  shoals,  on  the  right  and  the 
left,  which  must  be  avoided  if  we  would  settle  the  con- 
stitution of  liberty  in  order,  and  of  order  in  liberty. 
These  two  shoals  are  individualism  and  centralization. 

Individualism — it  is  a  good  thing  and  a  holy !  It 
is  the  origin  of  personality — that  which  makes  me  free, 
which  makes  me  worthy  and  noble,  if  I  will  but  show 
myself  a  man.  Centralization — this,  too,  is  a  good 
thing — a  necessary  thing,  always,  because  it  is  the  crea- 
tor and  conserver  of  nations ;  but  especially  necessary 
in  our  grand  modern  unities,  which  need,  in  order  to 
save  them  from  dissolution,  a  mighty  central  power. 
But  there  is  an  excess  of  individualism,  which  we  call 
anarchy,  and  there  is  an  excess  of  centralization,  which 
we  call  despotism.  And  whenever  the  constitution  of 
liberty  does  not  rest  upon  the  family,  it  goes  driving 
upon  anarchy,  and  then,  falling  back  from  Charybdis 
upon  Scylla,  it  is  dashed  to  pieces  against  despotism. 
Yes,  you  shall  have  individualism — a  fine  sight,  indeed  ! 
a  nation  ground  to  atoms,  without  cohesion,  without 
settled  authority,  without  the  family ;  nothing  but  indi- 
viduals unattached,  the  fine  dust  of  a  social  desert ;  in- 
capable, henceforth,  of  being  built  into  anything ;  capa- 
ble only  of  being  caught  up  and  whirled  aloft  in  some 


66  DISCOUESES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

wliirlwind,  to  be  let  fall,  anon,  in  pools  of  mire,  or  in 
clots  of  gore.     Such  is  anarchy. 

And  when  society,  frightened  at  such  a  work  as  this, 
shrinks  backward,  it  comes  upon  absolute  centralization 
— whether  it  be  vested  in  the  hands  of  one  man  or  of 
many ;  whether  it  be  a  republic  or  a  monarchy — that, 
after  all,  is  of  little  consequence — it  is  only  a  question 
of  form  and  words ;  in  either  case,  society  will  inevit- 
ably come  out,  if  it  proceeds  in  this  direction,  on  the 
absorption  of  all  the  living  forces  of  a  nation  in  one 
abnormal  centre,  the  establishment  of  the  most  terrible 
despotism  our  race  has  known !    These  are  the  two  shoals ! 

Show  me  families  worthy  the  name — true  domestic 
commonwealths,  father  and  mother,  king  and  minister, 
enthroned  together  in  the  midst  of  the  circle  of  their 
children,  talking  to  them  of  ancestors,  of  honor,  of 
duty,  and  being  hearkened  to — commanding  in  respect, 
and  still  piore  in  love,  and  being  obeyed  ;  show  me  a 
father,  king  in  his  own  house,  and  so  much  the  more 
free  in  the  world  without,  as  he  is  authoritative  in  the 
world  within ;  show  me  homes  like  these,  and  I  will  show 
you  republics  !  The  genuine  free  citizen  is  the  father, 
respected  and  obeyed  at  home.  It  is  out  of  such  sturdy 
materials  as  this  that  lasting  social  order  can  be  built. 

2.  In  religious  society,  what  is  the  pending  question 
which  is  now  disturbing  and  dividing  us  ?  It  is  the 
question  how  best  to  repress  the  two  most  terrible 
scourges  of  our  time — skepticism  and  immorality. 
What  can  we  do  in  France  and  in  the  greater  part  of 
Europe  ?  what  can  we  do  in  the  nineteenth  century — I 
do  not  say  to  refute  and  confound  theoretically,  but 
practically  and  efficiently  to  repress  these  two  enemies 
of  God  and  man — skepticism  and  immorality  ? 

There  are  two  schools  of  opinion  amongst  us  Catho- 


THE   FAMILY.  67 

lies.  One,  very  liberal,  comes  forward  and  says :  "  No 
compulsion  !  absolute  liberty !  The  Church  is  mighty, 
because  it  is  truth  and  love.  Let  it  speak  and  act,  let  it 
teach  and  suffer,  let  it  pour  forth  the  sweet  savor  of  its 
prayers  toward  heaven  and  the  sweet  savor  of  its  sacra- 
ments toward  the  earth,  and  it  will  triumph  without 
the  aid  of  any  secular  arm !"  This  school,  as  I  was  say- 
ing, is  very  liberal ;  but  when  it  pushes  things  to  these 
extremes,  it  becomes  chimerical, 

The  other  school — whose  language  and  attitude,  I  am 
sorry  to  say,  too  often  repel  those  who  feel  as  I  do,  but 
which  nevertheless  plants  itself  on  great  truths — tells 
us :  "  Truth,  charity,  these  are  all  very  well,  but  you  are  in 
a  fallen  w^orld.  Man  is  evil  through  the  inheritance  of 
original  sin.  In  the  faculties  of  the  individual,  and  even 
in  the  forces  of  society  that  are  engrafted  on  the  indi- 
vidual man,  there  is  a  chronic  rebellion  against  the 
reign  of  truth,  justice,  and  charity.  Alongside  the  force 
of  moral  suasion  we  need  a  force  of  coercion — we  need 
the  sword ;  and  as  the  hand  of  the  Church  cannot  bear 
the  sword,  it  must  needs  lean  upon  the  secular  arm !" 

Such  are  these  two  schools,  in  the  plainness  of  their 
language,  and  the  inmost  depth  of  their  thoughts.  Each 
of  them  has  a  certain  share  of  truth,  and  each  its  share 
of  error. 

[Father  Hyacinthe  proceeds  to  demonstrate  with  the  second  of 
these  schools  the  abiding  consequences  of  original  sin  in  the  man 
and  in  humanity,  and  conchides  upon  the  necessity  of  severe 
discipline,  and  of  a  power  of  education  and  coercion  to  struggle 
effectively  against  these  rebellions  of  the  instinct  of  evil. 

Then  he  remarks,  with  the  former,  that  through  the  combination 
of  a  multitude  of  facts  and  laws,  which  have  forever  outgrown 
the  control  of  man,  and  which  would  seem  to  have  been  arranged 
by  a  providential  plan,  the  modern  conscience  in  the  sphere  of  re- 
ligion has  been  emancipated  from  the  tutelage  of  civil  authority. 


68  DISCOUBSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

In  the  lands  and  ages  wlien  such  a  state  of  things  prevails  in  the 
conscience  and  in  society,  what  is  to  be  the  secular  arm  of  the 
Church  ?  What  power  shall  wield  the  coercive  force  which 
henceforth  the  State  is  neither  willing  nor  able  to  exercise  ?  It  is 
to  be  the  authority  of  the  parent.] 

In  every  household  strongly,  Christianly  organized, 
'the  father  is,  in  some  sense,  the  secular  arm  of  Chris- 
tianity. He  exercises  the  educational  and  restraining 
power.  For  he  believes  not  only,  like  the  free-thinker, 
in  the  right  of  advising  his  child,  but  in  the  duty  of 
enforcing  morality,  and  since  morality  is  inseparable 
from  religion,  in  the  duty  of  enforcing  religion.  He  it  is, 
the  father  of  the  family,  who  having  had  the  power  of 
bequeathing  to  his  son  his  blood,  and  with  his  blood  the 
traditions  of  his  family,  has  also  the  power  of  bequeath- 
ing to  him  the  inheritance  of  his  soul,  and  of  constitu- 
ting him  a  believer  like  himself.  It  is  on  him  that  the 
duty  devolves  of  putting  out  of  the  way  skeptical  or  im- 
moral books ;  of  excluding  from  the  family  corrupting 
conversations ;  of  moulding  by  precept,  and,  when  neces- 
sary, by  punishment,  the  young  barbarian,  the  little 
savage  bequeathed  to  him  by  original  sin,  who  can  be- 
come a  civilized  being  and  a  Christian,  only  by  under- 
going this  troublous  baptism. 

The  whole  world,  at  this  moment,  is  anxiously  ques- 
tioning the  future.  The  old  Europe  is  falling  to 
pieces.  What  is  it  that  shall  constitute  the  new?  I 
answer.  The  Family. 

Surely,  in  a  country  like  this,  that  has  been  a  warlike 
country  from  the  days  of  Clovis  down,  and  which  never 
can  be  otherwise,  I  cannot  at  this  hour  disregard  the 
importance  of  armies.  And  albeit  the  principal  force 
of  armies,  however  men  may  forget  it,  is  a  moral  and 
spiritual  force — tlie   soldier's  patriotism,  his  bravery, 


THE   FAMILY.  69 

discipline,  devotion,  everything  which  goes  to  make  the 
hero ;  yet  I  am  far  from  denying  the  might  of  modern 
inventions  applied  to  war — and,  nevertheless,  I  say  that 
the  ultimate  future  of  the  world  does  not  belong  to 
armies !  The  lasting,  acceptable,  fruitful  victories  are 
not  those  of  the  needle-gun  and  the  rifled  cannon! 
The  future  of  Europe  and  the  w^orld  belongs  to  those 
nations  which  best  learn  to  practise  the  principles  of 
right,  the  nations  least  infested  with  sophists  and  har- 
lots, and  most  enriched  with  numerous,  industrious,  and 
Christian  families 


LECTURE    SECOND. 

December  9,  1866. 


CONJUGAL   SOCIETY  THE  FOUNDATION  OF 
DOMESTIC  SOCIETY. 

Gektlemek  :  Haying  to  speak  this  year  on  doinesfic 
society,  we  have  enlarged  our  scope  and  included  the 
whole  scheme  of  human  society.  The  family  has  ap- 
peared to  us  under  a  double  aspect.  First,  in  its  general 
and  primitive  sense,  this  word  has  revealed  to  us  the  tie 
of  blood  which  unites  all  mankind :  in  this  view,  the 
family  is  nothing  less  than  the  universal  form  of  hu- 
man society.  According  to  the  Catholic  doctrine,  in  fact, 
human  society,  the  great  total  of  humanity,  constitutes 
one  family  of  brethren,  having  a  Father  in  heaven,  even 
God,  and  a  father  on  earth,  the  man,  Adam.  Then, 
restricting  this  appellation  of  family  to  that  group  of 
human  beings  which  is  properly  so  called,  that  sacred 
group  living  under  the  same  roof,  sitting  at  the  same 
table,  receiving  light  and  warmth  at  the  same  fireside, 
we  said :  "  The  family,  in  this  second  point  of  view,  is 
one  of  the  three  forms  in  which  mankind  is  organized 
in  this  world — domestic  society,  civil  society,  and  re- 
ligious society.  And  it  is  in  the  family,  in  domestic 
society,  that  at  all  times,  and  especially  in  our  own 
times,  the  solution  of  the  great  questions  of  civil  and 
religious  society  is  contained." 

Such  is  a  brief  abstract  of  our  last  lecture. 

The  subject  to  which  we  come  to-day,  is  the  first  ele- 
ment of  domestic  society,  in  other  words,  conjugal  society. 


CONJUGAL  SOCIETY.  71 

Domestic  society  is  the  tasis  of  the  human  race,  but 
it  is  itself  based  on  conjugal  society.  And  because 
conjugal  society  is  not  only  an  idea,  one  of  the  grand- 
est of  the  thoughts  of  God,  but  a  fact,  one  of  the 
grandest  facts  of  humanity,  we  will  examine  it  in  the 
order  of  time  and  in  the  light  of  the  two  great  acts 
which  make  and  divide  the  centuries — the  act  of  crea- 
tion and  the  act  of  redemption.  Conjugal  society, 
then,  in  the  light  of  creation,  and  of  redemption,  as 
related  to  the  Creator  and  to  the  Eenewer,  is  the  sub- 
ject which  is  to  engage  our  attention. 

It  is  a  great,  a  difficult,  a  delicate  subject,  I  know ; 
I  do  not  approach  it  without  fear ;  but  I  am  to  speak  in 
your  presence.  Gentlemen,  and  I  count  in  advance  upon 
the  inspiration  that  is  to  come  to  me  from  you.  And 
then,  if  I  must  needs  tell  all  my  thoughts,  I  am  to 
speak  in  the  solemnity  of  the  Immaculate  Conception 
of  the  Virgin  Mary ;  under  the  light  of  that  dogma,  the 
foundations  of  which  are  as  old  as  Christianity  itself, 
but  its  formula  young  as  our  own  generation.  Thence 
I  await  that  pure  and  steadfast  light  which  shall  give 
me  the  wisdom  and  the  courage  to  speak  with  freedom, 
and  at  the  same  time  with  reserve. 

Part  First. — Conjugal  Society  in  the  Light  of  Creat'io7i, 
or  as  related  to  God  the  Creator. 

1st.  [Father  Hyacinthe  begins  by  seeking  in  the  Icm  of  sex  the 
first  principles  of  conjugal  society.] 

God,  we  are  told  in  the  book  of  Genesis,  "  created  man 
in  his  own  image."  *  And  then  follows  this  astounding 
expression,  "male  and  female  created  he  them.^f 

"  In  the  likeness  of  God !"     But  for  my  part  I  see  in 

*  Geneeis,  i.  27.  Ubid. 


72  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

this,  at  first  glance,  only  the  likeness  of  an  inferior  life ; 
for  this  mysterious  law  of  sex  does  not,  after  all,  belong 
exclusively  to  humanity;  it  reigns  throughout  animated 
nature  in  its  whole  extent ;  it  reigns  there,  but  does  not 
create  the  family.  In  the  physical  system,  in  which  I 
shall  first  consider  it — since,  as  St.  Paul  says,  ^^that 
is  first  which  is  natural,  and  afterward  that  which  is 
spiritual''* — in  the  physical  system,  even  among  men, 
this  law  is  powerless  to  create  conjugal  society  in 
its  grandeur  and  tenderness,  in  its  puritv  and  dignit}^ 
Its  legitimate  and  necessary  object  is  the  reproduction 
of  the  individual,  the  propagation  of  the  species.  But 
look  closely !  In  this  point  of  view  the  two  partners,  in 
relation  to  each  other,  are  two  means  of  parentage,  they 
are  not  two  e7ids.  Now  the  requirement  of  the  law  of 
personal  life — the  dignity  of  a  human  being — is  this : 
that  in  relation  to  his  fellow-beings  he  should  be  an  end, 
and  not  a  means — that  he  should  be  esteemed,  desired, 
loved,  for  his  own  sake. 

Ah !  do  you  know.  Gentlemen,  do  you  know  why,  in 
every  land  and  every  age,  the  harlot  has  been  the  object 
of  such  profound  contempt  ?  It  is  because  she  is  a  hu- 
man being  who  has  forgotten  her  human  dignity ;  it  is 
because  she  has  scorned,  outraged  in  herself  the  grand 
majesty  of  the  human  person  ;  and  because,  discrowned 
of  the  glory  of  being  an  end,  she  has  consented  to  the 
shame  of  being  a  means,  the  toy  of  caprice  and  the  in- 
strument of  lust !  For  that  cause  there  has  fallen  upon 
her  a  mantle  of  shame,  a  garment  of  ignominy  which 
can  never  be  removed. 

Suffer  me  now  to  say,  that  if  the  Christian  woman 
were  nothing  but  a  means  of  the  pro]3agation  of  mankind 

*  1  Corinthians,  xv.  46. 


CONJUGAL   SOCIETY.  73 

— if  she  were  only  a  mother,  not  a  wife,  she  would  be  a 
right  noble  instrument,  an  instrument  consecrated  to 
parentage,  but,  after  all,  nothing  but  the  means  to  an 
end.  That  must  not  be  !  That  might  do  for  heathens, 
who  saw  in  woman  nothing  but  a  necessary  eyil  of  the 
state !  And  this  is  what  the  boasted  marriage  of  Greece 
and  Eome  amounted  to,  a  marriage  which,  in  the  better 
days,  was  chaste  indeed,  but  never  noble  and  holy.  The 
woman  was  loyed  for  her  children's  sake,  never  for  her 
own. 

[Father  Hyaclnthe  shows  then  how  the  law  of  sex,  brought  into 
relation  with  the  moral  system,  and  transformed  into  a  law  of 
souls,  is  the  starting-point  of  conjugal  society.] 

Love !  this  is  the  word  which  we  must  have  courage 
to  pronounce,  if  we  would  express  the  essence  of  the 
conjugal  relation,  its  inmost  principle  and  law.  I 
know  well  that  this  word  is  exposed  to  the  sneers  of 
skepticism,  which  knows  no  greater  chimera — next  to 
God — than  love.  I  know,  too — 0  wretched,  miserable 
fact! — that  it  wakens  involuntarily  in  the  mind  the 
recollection  of  numberless  abuses  and  unequalled  dese- 
crations. But  what  matter  the  abuses !  What  matters 
the  shame  of  the  sinner!  Thank  God,  my  heart  has 
remained  pure,  my  reason  has  continued  sound,  and, 
preacher  of  the  Gospel  as  I  am,  teacher  of  the  under- 
standing and  heart  of  man,  it  is  my  right,  my  duty,  to 
speak  of  love.  Yes,  love.  And  if  our  morals  are  going 
to  ruin,  if  the  basis  of  the  family  is  undermined,  if 
domestic  society  leans  and  totters  like  a  ruined  edifice, 
it  is  because  men  have  forgotten  to  put  love  at  the 
foundation  of  the  house,  the  love  of  two  beings  who 
love  each  other  in  honor,  in  respect,  in  holiness. 

Let  me  open  my  old  Bible.    I  am  a  Bible  man,  and  I 


74  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

do  not  blush  to  declare  it  before  this  generation.  I  open 
the  book  at  the  first  page.  It  is  an  unstained  page,  for 
sin  had  not  yet  existed — a  page  all  filled  with  love  and 
conjugal  society.  I  have  led  you,  Gentlemen,  before 
now,  to  this  cradle  of  our  race,  called  Eden ;  I  am  going 
to  take  you  back  to  it  to-day.  It  is  not,  believe  me,  a 
caj)rice  of  my  imagination,  or  a  captivation  of  my  heart, 
but  a  sober,  serious  conviction,  that  therein  lie  the 
secrets  of  humanity.  I  believe  that  the  final  solutions 
of  things  have  been  set  by  God  in  their  primordial 
principles.  I  turn  again,  as  I  have  said,  to  Eden :  I 
turn  to  it  again,  on  that  first  day  of  the  world,  when 
God  founded  the  marriage  state.  It  is  the  first  day  of 
the  world  of  mankind.  There  had  been  other  days, 
ages  perhaps,  the  cycles  of  geology ;  but  now,  at  last, 
the  world  of  human  life  begins,  in  all  the  freshness  of 
its  dawn.  0  how  fresh  the  breezes  that  breathe  over 
every  thing!  how  pure  and  glorious  the  light  that 
shines  upon  this  paradise  of  earth,  this  abiding-place 
of  holy  pleasures !  Lo,  man  comes  forth  the  latest  born 
of  this  long  series  of  beings,  which  is  summed  up  in 
himself,  and  over  whom  he  holds  imperial  sway !  Hail, 
man,  thou  king  of  the  creation !  Hail,  great  Adam, 
fiither  of  the  human  race ! 

He  looks  through  all  the  infinite  scale  of  nature, 
through  all  the  gradations  of  being;  his  gaze  pene- 
trates their  inmost  parts,  and  his  speech  expresses 
their  qualities,  for  "he  calls  them  all  by  their  own 
names.''*  His  language  is  rich,  his  mind  luminous, 
but  his  heart  was  unawakened;  "there  was  not  found 
an  help-meet  for  him."t  I  know  not  whether  upon 
that  serene   majestic  brow  of  Adam  there   came  the 

*  Genesis,  ii.  20.    "  Appellavit  nominibus  euis."  t  Ibid. 


CONJUGAL   SOCIETY.  75 

shadow  of  a  cloud;  or  whether,  from  some  inner  re- 
cess of  his  heart,  unknown  even  to  himself,  there  was 
breathed  a  complaint.  I  know  only  that  God  spake 
these  words  in  a  mystery :  "  It  is  not  good  that  the  man 
should  be  alone."*  A  strange  thing !  God,  so  well- 
pleased  hitherto ;  God,  who  had  gloried  in  each  of  his 
works,  and  had  said:  "It  is  good."f  God,  who  had 
gloried  in  the  completed  whole,  and  had  said:  "Behold 
it  is  very  good."];  Now,  in  the  presence  of  his  master- 
piece, like  an  artist  who  has  failed  to  reproduce  his 
ideal,  turns  away,  and  says:  "It  is  not  good! — It  is  not 
good  that  man  should  be  alone !" 

To  the  work  then,  great  Artist !  For  thy  image,  thy 
likeness  upon  earth  must  not  remain  unfinished.  It  is 
God  made  visible  in  the  world:  endow  it  with  all  his 
beauty  and  majesty !  And  the  Artist  takes  up  again  his 
brush  to  retouch  the  canvas;  he  seizes  his  chisel  to 
shape  again  the  marble.  Bending  over  the  form  of 
Adam,  the  Lord  pierces  his  side.  Adam  had  fallen  into 
a  sleep — into  no  common  sleep,  but  into  a  trance,  the 
first  and  sublimest  of  prophetic  trances.  He  was  to 
be  not  merely  passive,  but  conscious  and  active,  con- 
senting inwardly,  in  the  light  of  prophecy,  to  that 
which  was  wrought  upon  him  from  without.  Adam 
slept  in  ecstasy,  he  waked  in  prophecy;  he  saw  the 
wound  that  had  been  opened  in  his  flesh — this  rib  that 
had  been  separated  from  next  his  heart,  all  warm  and 
pure  from  contact  with  that  abode  of  love  and  inno- 
cence— and  in  that  rib  the  marvellous  structure  of 
woman.  "God  builded  the  rib  into  a  woman."§  A 
biblical  expression,  full  of  marvels,  and  full  also  of  in- 
struction— marking  the  structure  on  which  the  master 
architect  had  exhausted  his  art — the  visible  structure  of 

*  Genesis,  ii.  18.        +  lb.  i.  10.        X  lb.  i.  31.        §  lb.  ii.  22  (margin). 


76  DISCOUBSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

that  body  in  which  shines  the  highest  beauty,  the  in- 
visible structure  of  that  soul  in  which  the  highest  good- 
ness breathes,  the  complete  structure  of  that  person  in 
which  the  highest  dignity  resides!  All  honor,  all 
honor  to  the  highest  work  of  God,  0  all  ye  whosoever 
have  not  forgotten  what  it  is  to  honor  any  thing  here 
in  this  world. 

And  when  Adam  awoke,  he  no  longer  spoke,  he  sang ! 
his  lips  unclosed  in  grace  and  sanctity,  and  from  his 
heart  came  forth  these  words  : 

"  Now  is  this  bone  of  my  bones, 
And  flesli  of  my  flesh. 
And  Woman  shall  she  be  called, 
For  she  was  taken  out  of  man. 
Therefore  shall  man  leave  father  and  mother, 
And  cleave  unto  his  wife, 
And  they  twain  shall  be  one  flesh."* 

Thus  speaks  the  Bible;  that  ancient  book  of  ancient 
wisdom,  that  virgin  page,  which  tells  me  nothing  of 
mother,  everything  of  wife!  Man  is  suffering,  or 
about  to  suffer,  from  loneliness :  God  creates  for  him 
society,  and,  best  of  all,  conjugal  society.  There  is  no 
reference  to  anything  else  in  the  sacred  narrative.  It 
is  not  till  after  the  fall  that  the  woman  receives  a  dis- 
tinctive name: — "Eve,  the  mother  of  all  living. "f 
Hitherto  she  was  called  by  the  one  name  common  to 
the  pair,  which  indicated  the  perfect  unity  which  love 
creates  between  a  true  husband  and  true  wife.  "He 
called  their  name  Adam,  in  the  day  when  they  were 
created."]; 

Thus,  then.  Gentlemen,  in  the  view  of  the  Bible,  and 
in  the  view  of  the  reason  and  heart  which   speak  to 

*  Genesis,  ii.  23,  24.  f  lb.  iii.  20.  X  lb.  v.  3. 


CONJUGAL  SOCIETY.  77 

US  in  the  Bible,  conjngul  society  is  a  society  of  perfect 
love ;  and  if  I  were  called  upon  to  define  it,  I  should 
not  define  it  by  its  extrinsic  end,  important  as  it  is — the 
procreation  of  offspring — but  by  its  intrinsic  and  essen- 
tial end,  which  consists  in  perfect  union.  I  should  define 
it :  "  the  fullest,  closest,  holiest  union  that  can  exist  be- 
tween two  human  beings."  Such  is  marriage.  As  such 
Tertullian  and  St.  Augustine  understood  it.  As  such  the 
Eoman  law  itself  defined  it,  far  in  advance,  in  this  re- 
spect, of  the  ideas  and  morals  of  the  time: — Conjunc- 
tio  maris  et  femince,  consortium  omnis  vitce,  divini  et 
liumani  juris  communicatio  :  "  the  union  of  male  and 
female,  the  partnership  of  the  whole  life,  the  fellow- 
ship of  rights  divine  and  human."  Admirable  defi- 
nition to  address  to  all  our  skeptics,  and  even  to  many 
Christians !  Marriage  is  not  only  the  mere  union  of 
man  and  wife,  but  a  partnership  of  the  entire  life ;  it  is 
not  only  a  fellowship  in  human  things,  but  also  in 
divine — divini  et  liumani  juris. 

It  is  enough  to  say  that  marriage  presupposes  and 
includes,  by  the  fact  that  it  exceeds  them,  all  other 
unions  that  can  exist  between  two  human  creatures. 
Start  with  that  simple  good-will  which  the  countenance 
of  man  can  kindle  in  the  eye  of  his  fellow-man,  and 
ascend  the  long  chain  of  hearts'  affections  up  to  the 
closest  friendship,  that  friendship  which  has  been  tested 
in  turn  by  happiness  and  misfortune,  and  which  neither 
life  nor  death  can  sunder,  and  I  will  tell  you :  "  These 
are  but  steps  that  lead  to  conjugal  love;  these  are  but 
strands  of  that  cord  which  shall  bind  two  persons  into 
one  single  life  :  Consortium  omnis  vitce.  The  love  of 
husband  and  wife,  such  as  God  would  have  it,  is  the 
grand  perfection  of  friendship.  It  is  the  latest  flower, 
the  most  exquisite,  most  brilliant,  and  most  fragrant 


78  DISCOUESES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

flower  in  tlie  paradise  of  tlie  heart ;  it  is  the  consum- 
mate fruit,  the  richest  and  sweetest  fruit  of  that  great 
faculty  of  love — the  most  yast,  the  deepest,  the  most 
inexhaustible  of  all  the  faculties  of  our  soul;  a  real 
tree  of  life  or  of  death,  according  to  the  use  we  make 
of  it.  It  is  the  highest  expression  of  love  in  this 
world!" 

How  many  points,  alas !  I  must  pass  by,  with  a  mere 
glance !  If  time,  if  your  strength  and  my  own  would 
permit,  how  many  things  would  I  have  to  say  here ! 

8d.  [Father  Ilyacinthe  indicates  harmony  and  subordination  as 
the  two  conditions  of  perfect  love — conditions  which  are  so  rare- 
ly found  in  mere  friendship.] 

"When  man  associates  with  man.  Gentlemen,  he  brings 
to  him  what  he  had  already — not  what  he  lacked.  But 
man  and  woman  are  two  halves  of  the  same  soul,  which 
mutually  complement  each  other.  Man  is  reason,  en- 
ergy of  thought  and  will.  Has  not  my  master,  St. 
Paul,  said,  "the  husband  is  the  head  of  the  wife?" 
"As  God  is  the  head  of  the  man,"  says  the  energetic 
apostle,  "  so  is  man  the  head  of  the  woman,"*  and 
woman  should  think  in  that  head,  and  be  inspired  with 
that  manly  and  kingly  wisdom.  In  like  manner,  we 
are  told  in  the  book  of  Genesis,  that  woman  is  the  heart 
of  man.  Look  into  your  rent  heart,  0  son  of  Adam ! 
it  lacks  in  tenderness,  it  lacks  in  a  certain  delicacy  and 
depth,  which  you  will  never  find,  except  in  Eve,  in  your 
mother,  your  sister,  or  your  wife.  Man  is  the  head  of 
the  woman — woman  is  the  heart  of  man  ;  this  is  har- 
mony, the  first  moral  requisite  of  their  perfect  love. 

This  is  the  proper  place  to  remark,  that  there  ought  to 

*  Ephesians,  v.  23. 


CONJUGAL   SOCIETY.  79 

be,  between  husband  and  wife  truly  worthy  the  names 
in  their  best  meaning,  a  community  of  moral  and  re- 
ligious conscience.  The  disregard  of  this  cardinal  point 
is  one  of  the  greatest  mistakes  in  marriage  at  the  pres- 
ent time.  A  celebrated  statesman  of  the  last  century, 
Turgot,  used  to  say:  "We  need  to  have  marriage 
preached  to  us — and  true  marriage."  Now,  true  mar- 
riage cannot  be  that  superficial  union  of  two  existences, 
which  do  not  touch  each  other  by  their  deepest  sides — 
by  the  moral  and  religious  life.  In  this  grave  question. 
Gentlemen,  the  truth  lies  in  extremes.  Either  it  is  in 
the  believer,  who  says  to  his  wife,  "  Together  let  us  trust 
and  love  and  worship  the  God  of  our  fathers  and  our 
children,  the  God  of  Bethlehem  and  Calvary ;"  or  else 
it  must  be  in  the  logical  and  consistent  skeptic,  the 
hard-headed  political  economist,  who  says  to  his  part- 
ner, "  I  will  have  only  one  conscience  between  thee  and 
me ;  no  priest  to  bless  our  couch,  no  priest  to  conse- 
crate our  child,  no  priest  to  pray  and  weep  over  our 
grave !"  There  is  a  genuine  marriage.  Gentlemen  ; 
faith,  or  its  negation,  in  one  and  the  same  morality  and 
religion  !  Harmony  is  the  head  thinking  in  the  heart, 
the  heart  inspired  from  the  head ! 

But,  alas !  this  great  division  of  the  family  has  en- 
tered into  society  as  well.  We  are  two  Frances  in 
France,  and  I  might  almost  say,  two  Europes  in  Eu- 
rope,— a  manly  but  skeptical  France,  which  does  not 
think  with  its  heart,  which  clings  to  an  abstract  and 
unbelieving  science,  which  woman — and  rightly  enough 
— will  have  none  of:  and  then  a  feminine  and  believing 
France,  the  better  France,  the  France  that  is  our  salva- 
tion, but  which  has  no  longer  a  higher  thought  with 
which  to  stay  and  illuminate  its  love.  Here  you  see 
our  social  evil,  and  at  the  same  time  our  domestic  evil. 


80  DISCOURSES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

So  much  for  Harmony  in  the  marriage  relation.  I 
have  spoken  also  of  Subordination.  Friendship  im- 
plies equality ;  it  makes  equals  even  when  it  does  not 
find  them :  Amicifia  pares  tnvenit  ant  facit.  But  this 
is  not  true  of  that  grand  friendship  which  we  call  love. 
Love  demands  subordination — it  implies,  even  in  the 
moral  system,  an  active  principle  and  a  passive  princi- 
ple. Of  two  beings  loving  each  other,  one  will  love  the 
more  in  the  way  of  sacrifice — will  give  up  more  largely 
and  more  freely,  or  at  least  in  another  form — will  be- 
come thus  the  joy  and  glory  of  the  being  beloved. 

Now  this  afiectionate  surrender  of  self,  which  cannot 
be  realized  from  man  to  man,  is  naturally  realized 
from  woman  to  man.  Woman,  indeed,  the  complete 
equal  of  man  in  her  soul,  and  all  that  pertains  to  her 
personal  rights  and  dignity,  is  not  his  equal  in  sex  and 
in  the  position  assigned  to  her  in  civil  and  domestic  so- 
ciety. "  The  man  was  not  created  for  the  woman,  but 
the  woman  for  the  man,"*  says  St.  Paul.  Man  was 
alone,  and  he  was  sad ;  God  gave  to  him  this  mysterious 
and  sublime  counterpart,  which  is  for  him,  which  be- 
longs to  him,  and  I  had  almost  said,  which  is  himself: 
"  She  shall  be  called  woman,  because  she  was  taken  out 
of  man."f  And  St.  Paul  says  again,  "the  v/oman  is  the 
glory  of  the  man  :"J:  man  has  radiated  this  glory  from 
himself,  and  looks  upon  and  loves  himself  in  this  sweet 
and  luminous  atmosphere. 

I  know  that  sophists  are  preaching  the  equality  of  the 
sexes.  But  the  heart  of  woman  cries  out  as  loudly  as 
the  reason  of  man  against  an  error  destructive  of  the 
family.  What  woman  wants,  what  Christianity  wants, 
is  the  equality  of  souls,  the  equality  of  persons,  in  the 
same  rights  and  the  same  duties,  equality  in  chastity, 

♦  1  Corinthians,  xi.  9.  t  Genesis,  ii.  23.  %  1  Corinthians,  xi.  7. 


CONJUGAL  SOCIETY.  81 

equality  in  fidelity  and  love.  "  The  laws  of  Caesar  are 
one  thing,"  exclaimed  St.  Jerome  in  his  sharp  and  en- 
ergetic language,  "the  laws  of  Christ  are  another 
thing!"  Amongst  us.  Christians,  what  we  forbid  to 
women,  we  do  not  allow  to  men.  As  respects  any  one 
and  the  same  duty,  obedience  is  of  equal  obligation  upon 
both. 

4tli.  [Having  pointed  out  these  two  conditions  of  perfect  love, 
harmony  and  subordination,  which  render  conjugal  society  so  in- 
timate, the  spealier  recognizes  the  linal  seal  of  its  union  in  the 
child,  that  third  person  in  the  terrestrial  trinity.  He  concludes  as 
follows :] 

0  Lord,  my  God!  it  is  but  just  now  I  proclaimed 
Thee,  in  the  exaltation  of  my  thought  and  of  my  heart, 
the  type  of  human  society— as  one  in  thy  nature,  and 
manifold  in  thy  persons ;  we  ourselves,  also,  manifold  in 
in  our  persons,  and  one  in  our  blood,  in  our  reason  and 
in  our  moral  unity.  I  proclaimed  Thee,  0  my  God !  as 
the  type  of  the  great  fellowship  of  mankind!  I  hail 
Thee  now,  I  venerate  and  I  adore  Thee  as  the  especial 
type  of  the  society  of  home. 

Yes,  the  Lord  is  God,  he  is  the  Father,  and  within 
himself  is  his  own  glory ;  for  "  the  AVord  is  tlie  glory  of 
God."  He  thinks  of  his  glorious  Word,  in  substance 
and  in  person,  his  beautiful  and  living  Keason,  his  Son. 
He  contemplates  his  Word,  and  in  this  meditation,  from 
the  two,  the  Father  and  the  AYord,  proceedeth  the  Holy 
Spirit — that  is,  love — love  in  substance  and  in  person. 
And  the  Father  and  the  Word  abide  in  it !  The  cycle 
of  divine  life  is  consummated.  God  is  complete,  God  is 
blessed.  And  there  are  three  that  bear  witness  in 
heaven,  the  Father,  the  Word,  and  the  Spirit ;  and  these 
three  are  one ! 

4* 


82  DiscouESES  or  father  hyacinthe. 

Now  there  are  tliree  also  that  bear  witness  on  earth. 
Man  is  not  satisfied  with  his  own  solitary  personality ; 
he  also  must  have  his  glory;  and,  like  God,  he  must 
have  his  word,  his  beautiful  reason  made  visible,  his 
sweet  and  strong  conscience  to  surround  him  with  its 
clear,  pure  light.  And  with  this  blessed  image,  called, 
like  the  Word,  "  the  express  image  of  his  person,"  the 
stainless  mirror  of  his  beauty;  with  her  he  begets  his 
son,  a  third  self — a  third  term  common  to  the  husband 
and  the  wife,  in  which  their  love  becomes  incarnate, 
and  fixes  itself,  and  abides.  The  cycle  of  human  life  is 
accomplished.  Like  God  in  heaven,  so  man  is  com- 
plete and  blessed  on  the  earth,  and  there  are  three  that 
bear  witness — the  father,  and  the  wife,  and  the  child ; 
and  these  three  agree  in  one. 

Part  Seco:^^^. — Conjugal  Society  in  the  Light  of  Re- 
demption, or  before  God  the  Reyiewer. 

But  over  the  splendors  of  Eden  sin  has  cast  its  bale- 
ful shadow.  Woman  has  fallen,  love  is  profaned, 
marriage  is  debased!  And  when  the  Kedeemer  had 
descended  into  this  world  that  the  Creator  had  made — 
one  day,  Jesus  was  in  the  Tem]3le  at  Jerusalem,  and 
the  Pharisees  of  the  old  law  brought  unto  him  a  blush- 
ing, trembling  woman,  a  woman  taken  in  adultery : 
"  Master,"  said  they,  "  Moses  in  the  law  commanded  us, 
that  such  should  be  stoned ;  but  what  sayest  thou  ?"* 
This  woman  was  not  only  a  woman ;  but  woman,  man, 
all  conjugal  society,  degenerate,  guilty,  corrupt!  There 
she  was,  upon  her  knees,  veiled  with  her  hair  and 
bathed  in  tears — on  her  knees  in  misery.  And  Jesus 
spake   not,   but  "stooped  down   and  with  his  finger 

*  John,  viii.  4,  5. 


CONJUGAL  SOCIETY.  83 

wrote  upon  the  ground,  as  though  he  heard  them  not." 
He  wrote  the  gospel  of  mercy  and  regeneration ;  and 
to  those  Pharisees,  those  scribes,  who  were  clamoring 
for  punishment — stoning — execution — '•  Jesus  lifted 
himself  up,  and  said,  'He  that  is  without  sin  among 
you,  let  him  first  cast  a  stone  at  her !'  And  again  he 
stooped  down  and  wrote  upon  the  ground."  And  when 
all  had  gone  out,  says  the  Evangelist  St.  John,  begin- 
ning at  the  eldest,  the  bald  heads  and  white  hairs — 
when  the  men  without  mercy  or  pity  had  gone  out, 
there  were  none  left  but  these  two,  face  to  face ;  Jesus, 
writing  ujDon  the  ground,  and  the  woman  in  her  blushes 
and  her  tears — the  Son  of  the  Virgin  and  the  adulteress : 
"Jesus  was  left  alone,  and  the  woman  standing  in  the 
midst ;"  or  to  use  the  words  of  St.  Augustine,  "  Great 
misery  and  great  mercy:"  magna  miseria,  et  magna 
misericorcUa. 

1st.  Jesus  has  rebuked  the  corruptions  of  lore,  but 
he  has  not  rebuked  loye ;  he  has  not  despaired  of  love, 
nor  of  conjugal  society.  Far  from  that,  he  has  looked 
into  the  face  of  love  with  that  eye,  at  once  Virgin  and 
Divine;  he  has  taken  it  into  those  hands  of  his  that 
were  lacerated  on  the  cross  and  bathed  with  the  blood 
of  redemption ;  and  of  that  love  so  long  desecrated  he 
has  constituted  one  of  the  sacraments  of  the  Church, 
one  of  the  seven  columns  which  bear  up  the  spiritual 
world.  "This  is  a  great  sacrament,"  says  St.  Paul; 
"  but  I  speak  concerning  Christ  and  the  Church."*  And 
the  Council  of  Trent  assures  us  that  it  is  this  natural 
and  human  love — naturalem  illimi  amor  em — which  Jesus 
has  purified  and  consecrated  in  the  sacrament  of  mar- 
riage. How  great  the  work !  in  which  Jesus  has  not 
only  followed  the  counsels  of  his  mercy :    he  was  the 

*  Epheeians,  v,  32.    "  gaQrameotwHi  bpc  magnum  eet,"— Fw^<7fl^^- 


84  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

Word,  and  lie  has  followed  the  counsels  of  eternal 
reason. 

In  fact,  if  we  consider  lore  as  it  is  in  nature,  we 
discern  in  it  a  profoundly  religious  side.  If  we  observe 
love  as  it  is  in  a  state  of  sin,  we  discern  in  it  a  side 
profoundly  idoIatro7is ;  and  it  is  because  of  these  two 
sides,  the  religious  and  idolatrous,  the  side  of  nature 
and  of  sin,  that  it  was  just,  or  at  least  it  was  meet  for 
the  Divine  Word  to  rescue  natural  love,  and  make  of  it 
that  holy  and  thrice  sacred  thing,  a  sacrament. 

Love  is  religious  in  its  nature ;  our  ancestors  under- 
stood it  better  than  we — those  haughty  Germans — be- 
neath the  immemorial  forests  that  sheltered  their  valor 
and  their  virtues.  Tacitus,  who  found  consolation  in 
them  for  the  hopeless  degeneracy  of  Eome  under  the 
C^sars,  remarked :  "  The  Germans  believe  there  is 
something  divine  in  woman :"  inesse  quid  divinum. 
The  Germans  were  right.  There  is  in  woman,  as  we 
have  said,  the  reflection  of  God;  and  consequently,  in 
the  love  she  inspires,  when  it  is  the  outgoing  of  a 
heart  profound  by  nature  and  pure  of  life,  there  is 
something  that  is  religious. 

Yes,  love  is  naturally  a  religious  sentiment,  and  I 
shall  need  nothing  but  this  argument — this  fact — for  it 
is  a  fact — to  confound  all  the  positivists  and  materi- 
alists of  our  generation.  What !  you  say  that  man  can- 
not get  free  from  the  finite  through  his  reason  ?  I  tell 
you  that  he  escapes  from  it  not  only  through  his  reason, 
but  also  through  his  heart !  What !  you  say  that  man 
is  nothing  but  matter,  that  his  life  is  bounded  by  a 
cradle  full  of  tears  and  a  grave  full  of  worms,  and  that 
pent  up  in  this  brief  and  sad  existence,  he  is  only  capa- 
ble of  thinking  of  matter  and  loving  matter?  I  tell 
you,  Nay ;  ye  blasphemers  of  human  nature !    Kay,  ye 


CONJUGAL   SOCIETY.  85 

sophists  of  the  nineteenth  century !  ISTay,  ye  corrupters 
of  my  noble  France,  my  grand  human  society,  my 
glorious  modern  civilization  I  K^ay,  it  is  not  true ! 
Man  goes  forth  from  the  finite,  he  emerges  fi'om  matter 
through  his  reason,  because  he  thinks  of  God;  and 
through  his  heart,  because  he  loves  his  mother,  because 
he  loves  his  sister,  and  because  he  cherishes  his  wife ! 

There  is,  then,  something  divine  in  woman,  some- 
thing sacred  in  love ;  and  for  that  reason  I  add,  some- 
thing idolatrous  in  its  ^profanations. 

It  is  these  perversions  of  the  sentiment  of  love  that 
have  given  rise  to  one  of  the  least  studied  and  yet  most 
notable  facts  of  the  ancient  religions — the  idolatry  of 
woman,  or  idolatry  through  woman.  I  do  not  dwell 
upon  it,  but  there  are  great  revelations  to  be  found  here 
for  one  who  studies  the  human  heart.  As  to  the  mod- 
ern paganism  which  tends  to  grow  up  among  us,  it 
feels  too  powerfully  the  influence  of  Christianity,  even 
while  combating  it,  to  reach  that  excess  of  positive 
and  avowed  idolatry.  But  the  passion  of  which  I  speak 
assumes  each  day,  in  ideas  as  well  as  in  facts,  the  char- 
acteristics of  a  moral  idolatry.  I  might  cite  a  certain 
book  written  with  unquestionable  talent  and  with  no 
less  unquestionable  conviction,  in  my  opinion,  in  which 
the  worship  of  ivoman  and  the  religion  of  love  are  sub- 
stituted for  the  worship  of  the  true  God  and  the  reli- 
gion of  Christ.  But  what  am  I  saying !  I  might  re- 
call an  odious  but  needful  recollection,  a  recent  infamous 
page  of  our  history,  which  meets,  now-a-days,  with 
apologists,  hardly  with  imitators.  Remember  the  time 
when  the  Erench  people  repudiated  the  God  of  France, 
the  God  of  Clotilde  and  of  Clovis — the  time  when  the 
worship  of  Reason  was  preached  to  a  nation  that  had 
broken  loose  from  faith !     Well,  reason  was  too  cold 


86  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

and  abstract,  and  in  its  place  there  was  set  up  upon  this 
altar  the  spectacle  of  a  live  woman !  The  professed 
idolatry  of  the  ancient  world  and  the  i^ractical  idolatry 
of  the  modern  world  have  both  exalted  love  and  woman ; 
and  have  both  debased,  humiliated,  almost  annihilated 
them.  Love  is  no  longer  love,  but  lust ;  and  woman  is 
the  idol  or  the  priestess  of  this  hideous  worship  I 

[The  naturally  religious  tendency  of  love  uncorrupted  and  the 
idolatrous  tendency  of  corrupt  love  are,  according  to  Father  Hya- 
cinthe,  two  distant  and  obscure  preparations  for  the  elevation  of 
conjugal  love  to  the  rank  of  a  sacrament.  Love  was  a  vague 
religion  of  the  heart ;  it  was  good  to  exalt  it  and  to  formulate  it. 
Love  was  an  idolatry,  and  an  unclean  idolatry  at  that ;  it  was 
good  to  enlighten  and  purify  it.  Christ  has  constituted  the  union 
of  two  Christian  lives  into  a  sacrament.] 

2d.  But  what  is  a  sacrament  ? 

The  catechism,  that  book  which  is  too  little  known, 
but  which  contains  the  solutions  of  all  our  moral  and 
religious  questions,  tells  us  that  a  sacrament  is  a  sign 
which  expresses  and  a  force  which  operates  the  grace 
of  God.  The  union  of  husband  and  wife  is  then  a  sign 
and  a  force  in  the  sacrament  of  Christ ;  a  sign  which 
expresses  and  a  force  which  operates  the  supernatural 
grace  of  Christian  love. 

I  am  in  haste  to  close ;  but  what  wonders  might  we 
yet  discover  in  this  new  significance  which  Jesus  has 
given  to  love  !  The  love  of  husband  and  wife,  in  itself 
so  great  and  holy,  has  become  the  symbol  and  the  image 
of  the  love  of  Christ  and  his  Church !  Jesus  has  loved 
the  race  of  man ;  the  Word  of  God  drew  near  to  us,  not 
as  father  to  child,  not  as  friend  to  friend,  but  as  husband 
to  wife.  The  Lord,  so  say  our  sacred  books,  has  loved 
the  souls  of  men ;    the  Lord,  continue  their  inspired 


CONJUGAL  SOCIETY.  87 

pages,  has  loved  the  nations; — he  has  loved  souls  and 
united  them  to  himself  in  the  invisible  unity  of  his 
Church ;  he  loved  the  nations  and  united  them  in  the 
visible  structure,  in  the  corporate  unity  of  this  same 
Church.  The  oneness  of  God's  love  with  our  souls ; 
the  oneness  of  God's  love  with  the  nations — with  all 
humanity, — God  descending  to  the  bosom  of  the  im- 
maculate Virgin,  and  there  espousing  human  nature, 
my  blood  and  my  flesh  ; — God,  the  immolated  and  glori- 
ous spouse,  lifted  up  upon  the  bloody  and  fruit-bearing 
branches  of  the  cross,  and  there  espousing  all  genera- 
tions regenerated  by  him  in  his  sacrifice ;  this  is  the 
type  of  Christian  marriage !  The  love  of  God  and 
man  is  the  marvellous  theme  of  the  Song  of  Songs.  All 
the  ancient  East — the  monuments  of  India,  in  particu- 
lar, attest  it — all  the  ancient  East  has  recognized  in  the 
union  of  man  and  wife  a  poetic  and  religious  image  of 
the  union  of  God  with  the  soul 

Such  are  the  lofty  thoughts  which  should  reign  in  the 
hearts  of  Christians  when  they  are  joined  together  in 
the  sacrament  of  holy  wedlock.  This  man  is  a  Christ 
upon  the  earth !  that  womaii  is  a  daughter  of  God,  a 
sister  of  Jesus  Christ!  Both  of  them  were  ransomed 
on  Calvary,  baptized  in  the  sacred  water,  fed  with  an- 
gels' food,  refreshed  from  the  altar-cups.  They  are  wor- 
thy to  love  God  each  in  the  other — they  are  worthy, 
in  that  communion  of  souls  which  is  accomplished  in 
the  sacrament  of  marriage,  to  give  their  God  to  one  an- 
other, when  they  give  their  hearts ! 

To  enjoy  a  soul,  in  the  ordinary  human  way,  is  of  itself 
sublime !  to  enjoy  an  immortal  thought,  to  enjoy  a  heart 
tender  and  strong,  a  heart  loving  and  chaste,  is  almost 
divine !  What,  then,  must  it  be  to  enjoy  a  soul  in  a  way 
that  is  really  divine  ?  to  possess  in  common  with  that 


88  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHEE  HYACINTHE. 

soul  all  the  most  marvellous,  the  deepest  and  most  ex- 
quisite things  that  the  grace  of  Christ  has  wrought  upon 
its  thought  and  affections ;  if  so  be  this  mystery,  of  God 
received  and  held  within  that  soul,  is  delivered  by  it 
to  that  beloved  one  from  whom  it  has  henceforth  no 
secret  ?  Such,  nevertheless,  is  Christian  marriage ! 
"Husbands,"  exclaims  St.  Paul,  "love  your  wives,  even 
as  Christ  also  loved  the  Church  ;  wives,  love  your  hus- 
bands as  the  Church  loved  Jesus.*  Marriage,"  contin- 
ues he,  "  shall  be  an  honorable  and  glorious  thing,  and 
the  marriage-bed  undefiled."  f 

Now  this  is  no  dream.  I  have  said,  a  sacrament  is  a  sign, 
and  it  expresses.  I  add,  it  is  a  force,  and  it  works.  It 
contains  a  grace  which  lifts  man's  heart  to  the  height  of 
such  exalted  virtue.  Man,  in  the  plane  of  nature,  is  ever 
dreaming,  down  to  the  very  frosts  of  old  age,  even  when 
he  comes  under  the  very  sneers  of  skepticism  and  im- 
morality— dreaming  a  long,  long  dream  that  never  comes 
true.  He  would  fain  love  forever,  and  he  loves  but  for 
an  hour ;  he  would  fain  love  in  the  depth  of  his  soul, 
and  he  loves  but  in  the  senses ;  he  would  fain  love  the 
ideal,  and  again  he  finds  himself  always  confronted 
with  the  fallen  reality !  But  lo  !  the  Christians  whose 
hearts  have  been  touched  with  the  grace  of  God  through 
Christ !  and  these  have  loved  in  truth,  in  unity,  and  for 
eternity  !     "  This  is  a  great  sacrament,"  I  say,  in  Jesus 

and  the  Church Question  our  old  Gallic  firesides, 

question  our  European  homes  wherever  the  sap  of 
Christianity  has  conserved  its  vital  power,  and  they  will 
answer  you  with  the  grand  echo,  so  grave  and  tender, 
of  conjugal  love. 

[In  the  peroration  of  this  conference,  the  speaker  shows  the  su- 
periority of  virginity  to  marriage  which  he  has  so  extolled.] 

*  Ephesians,  v.  25,  t  Hebrew?,  xiii.  4. 


CONJUGAL  SOCIETY.  89 

A  young  Christian  married  pait  were  one  day  sailing 
over  the  Adriatic,  reading  in  the  pages  of  a  pure  book, 
and,  deeper  yet,  in  the  pages  of  their  own  pure  hearts. 
The  words  which  they  read  from  Avithout,  and  to  which 
they  harkened  from  within,  were  these  :  "  Is  it  not  mis- 
ery to  love  for  this  life  only?  Have  you  no  longing 
for  eternal  love  ?"  *  Ah  !  it  is  the  misery,  the  longing 
of  us  all :  the  misery  of  transient  love  and  the  longing 
for  eternal  love!  I  know,  indeed,  that  the  love  of 
husband  and  wife  shall  continue  in  another  form  in 
future  ages,  and  it  is  from  some  delicate,  subtle  appre- 
hension of  this  that  the  Church  has  derived  the  re- 
pugnance it  feels  for  second  nuptials,  to  which  it  re- 
fuses the  solemn  benediction  of  the  priest.  There  is 
a  love  and  fidelity  beyond  the  tomb,  a  love  for  eter- 
nity. But,  after  all,  this  love  is  no  longer  conjugal; 
for  in  conjugal  love,  exalted  as  I  have  deemed  it,  there 
are  two  profound  infirmities.  It  is  too  earthly,  the  senses 
have  a  share  in  it,  and  the  senses  are  always  fallen  ;  it 
is  too  exclusive,  and  in  the  heart  itself,  elevated  as  it  is 
above  the  senses,  it  too  much  absorbs  two  individual  be- 
ings each  in  the  other,  at  the  expense  of  great  loves  and 
sacrifices  for  humanity.  Therefore  it  is  that  Jesus 
Christ,  when  questioned  by  the  Jews  on  the  mystery  of 
the  life  to  come,  answered,  "  In  the  resurrection  they 
neither  marry  nor  are  given  in  marriage,  but  are  as  the 
angels  of  God."f 

No  more  marrying  and  giving  in  marriage,  in  the 
earthly  sense ;  and  yet  there  is  a  grand  continuance  of 
love ;  there  is  the  latest  bloom  of  what  I  have  called  the 
tree  of  life,  the  consummate  flower  of  love,  virginity. 
0,  vainly  have  men  sought  to  make  virginity  the  foe  of 
love ;  it  is  the  sister,  the  continuator,  the  perfecter  of 

*  "  A  Sister's  Story,"  by  Madame  Craven.  t  Matthew,  xsii.  30. 


90  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

love ;  it  is  tlie  reproacli  that  men  cast  upon  my  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  and  it  is  its  glory.  For  me,  this  alone 
would  be  its  demonstration,  a  demonstration  that  needs 
no  further  proof: — the  Catholic  Church  has  always  ac- 
cepted, affirmed,  and  practised  yoluntary  celibacy ;  and 
highly  as  it  has  extolled  conjugal  love,  higher  still  has 
it  exalted  Christian  virginity. 

Ah  !  virginity  is  that  craving  for  love  in  another  life ; 
it  is  the  exclusive  longing  after  love  eternal,  infinite ; 
for  "  the  marriage  of  the  Lamb,"*  of  which  St.  John 
speaks  in  the  Revelation ;  when  one  shall  no  more 
love  one  single  person  ;  when  one  shall  no  more  be  ab- 
sorbed in  a  single  created  mind  and  heart ;  when  the 
veil  being  rent  (for  love  in  this  world  is  a  veil — as  it 
were  a  bridal  veil  that  is  spread  over  the  wedded  pair — 
a  transparent  veil,  which  reveals  the  mystery  of  God, 
but  hides  it  even  more),  as  in  the  temple  of  Jerusalem, 
when  the  hour  of  ty}3es  and  figures  had  passed  away 
and  the  Jewish  people  was  making  Avay  for  the  Chris- 
tian  0  let  me,  let  me  rend  away  the  veil!     I 

long  to  love  God,  no  more  through  a  heart  finite  and 
fallen,  like  mine,  however  pure  and  tender  it  may  be — 
I  long  to  love  God,  face  to  face,  heart  to  heart,  and  to 
'  clasp  him  in  the  exclusive  embrace  of  my  love ! 

David  has  sung  of  these  things  of  old.  He  has 
spoken  of  the  lonely  bed  where  by  night  the  tears  flow, 
drop  by  drop  like  the  dew,  or  in  torrents  like  a  storm 
of  rain.  I  loug  for  these  drops — these  streams;  I  long 
to  groan  and  cry  out  in  my  heart,  in  solitude :  "  I  have 
roared  by  reason  of  the  disquietness  of  my  heart."!  0 
God,  thou  art  my  God,  early  will  I  seek  thee  l"l  "  My 
heart  and  my  flesh  crieth  out  for  the  living  God."§  As 
the  hart  in  the  sultry  days  of  summer,  I  am  athirst — 

*  Rev.,  xix.  7.      t  Pe.  xxxviii.  8.     t  lb,  Ixiii.  1.     §  lb.  Ixxxiv.  2. 


CONJUGAL  SOCIETY.  91 

athirst  for  the  infinite  beantj!  0  eternal  love,  ever 
old,  and  ever  young,  without  spot  or  wrinkle !  0  rap- 
ture of  the  heart !  0  calmness  of  the  reason  !  My 
bones  are  fevered  and  again  are  chilled,  and  "  all  my 
bones  murmur  :  *  Lord,  who  is  like  unto  thee  ?'  "* 

This  is  the  utmost  expression  of  love ! 

The  day  shall  come  when  all  Christian  spouses,  freed 
from  the  veil,  relieved  of  the  burden  of  the  flesh,  re- 
leased from  the  prison  of  an  exclusive,  individual,  self- 
ish love,  shall  say  these  things  !  They  say  them  already, 
in  the  types  and  shadows  of  all  holy  loves ;  and  they 
see,  afar  off,  those  nuptials  at  which  every  spouse  shall 
be  a  virgin,  and  every  virgin  a  spouse,  and  when  the 
one  race  of  man  ransomed  by  Christ  shall  perfect  the 
bloom  of  conjugal  love,  in  the  bloom  of  eternal  vir- 
ginity ! 

*  Pealm  xxxv.  10. 


LECTURE    THIRD. 

December  16,  1866. 


THE  COERUPTION  OF  THE  CONJUGAL  EE- 
LATION  BY  THE  IMMORALITY  OE  THE 
AGE. 

[In  a  rapid  exordium,  Father  Hyacinthe  showed  the  connec- 
tion of  this  Lecture  with  the  preceding.  The  latter  had  for  its 
object  to  bring  distinctly  to  view  the  ideal  of  the  marriage  rela- 
tion as  the  Creator  had  realized  it  in  the  beginning,  and  as  the 
Redeemer  had  restored  it  in  the  fulness  of  time.  To-day  the 
speaker  proposes  to  study  the  corruption  of  this  relation  by  im- 
morality in  general,  and  especially  by  the  immorality  of  the 
present  age. 

The  contest  between  good  and  evil  belongs  to  all  ages ;  but  it 
has  certain  more  dramatic  situations — certain  more  solemn  and 
startling  crises.  In  Europe,  and  particularly  in  France,  we  have 
arrived  at  one  of  these  conjunctures.  The  immorality  of  the  age 
attacks  the  conjugal  relation:  1.  In  its  essence;  3.  In  its  legisla- 
tion; 3.  In  its  supernatural  consecration  by  the  sacrament.  Such 
are  the  three  points  of  view  taken  by  the  speaker.] 

Part  First. — Corruption  of  the  Marriage  Relation  in 

its  Essence. 

[Father  Hyacinthe  shows,  first,  how  the  immorality  of  the  age 
attacks  the  very  nature  of  the  conjugal  relation,  and  disregards 
the  essence  of  marriage  in  separating  it  from  love.] 

I  believe  I  liave  proved,  in  the  last  Lecture,  tliat  the 
idea  of  marriage  is  love — love,  in  truth  and  in  justice,  love 
in  all  the  demands  of  personal  dignity.    Marriage,  I  said, 


COKKUPTION   OF  THE   CONJUGAL  RELATION.  93 

is  the  exclusive  form  of  love  among  men,  the  only  one 
which  it  can  assume  in  order  to  be  worthy  of  our 
grand  personal  nature. 

Now,  the  tendency  of  society,  in  our  day,  is  to  separ- 
ate marriage  from  love,  and  to  put  asunder  what  the 
law  of  God  and  the  heart  of  man  have  made  one.  In 
marriage  without  love,  and  in  love  without  marriage, 
there  is  a  twofold  immoral  tendency — the  expression  is 
not  too  strong — and  it  is  the  fountain-head  of  a  large 
part  of  our  moral  disorders. 

1.  I  have  said  that  marriage  is  the  indissoluble  part- 
nership of  two  lives — that  is,  two  souls,  two  persons, 
two  existences,  in  which  everything  is  shared,  nothing 
divided :  consortiian  omnis  vitce.  It  is  the  communion 
between  husband  and  wife,  in  all  things  pertaining  to 
heaven  and  earth,  to  man  and  God :  divini  et  liumani 
juris  communicatio.  This  is  true  marriage,  as  the 
Komans  defined  it,  and  as  Christians  have  practised 
it.  Such  marriage  obviously  implies  love.  It  implies 
harmony  of  character  and  conformity  of  taste,  agree- 
ment of  temperament  and  age,  community  of  moral 
habits  and  religious  convictions.  It  supposes,  in  one 
word,  in  respect  both  to  soul  and  to  body,  everything 
which  can  attract  to  each  other  two  human  beings 
who  are  some  day  to  be  united,  never  thenceforth  to 
separate. 

Now,  is  it  not  true,  that  generally,  in  the  contracting 
of  marriages  amongst  us,  these  personal  considerations 
are  almost  wholly  set  aside,  or  at  least  subordinated  to 
considerations  of  interest  ?  Is  it  not  true  that,  once 
sure  of  a  certain  fitness  (which,  by  the  way,  is  sus- 
ceptible of  a  most  elastic  construction)  in  the  position 
of  the  families,  the  question  which  is  considered,  the 
practical  and  decisive  question,  is  the  combination  of 


94  DISCOUESES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

fortunes?  And  between  two  beings  who  yesterday 
were  unacquainted  and  to-day  have  hardly  met,  they 
make  np  a  match  (I  am  forced  to  say  it)  as  they  would 
drive  a  bargain !  I  am  not  talking  about  exceptional 
cases.  I  am  speaking  of  the  general  law  among  the 
Avealthy  classes  of  our  country,  and  even  in  the  most 
honorable  and  Christian  families.  Kow,  Gentlemen,  I 
make  bold  to  say  that  in  this  way  marriage  is  falsified, 
perverted  by  the  very  act  with  which  it  begins — the 
choice  of  the  partners  to  it. 

[2.  After  having  shown  in  detail,  how,  in  thus  constituting 
marriage  without  love,  the  institution  has  been  perverted,  Father 
Hyacinthe  proves,  on  the  other  hand,  that  love  without  marriage 
becomes  the  source  of  incurable  corruption.] 

What,  then,  is  to  be  the  result  ?  Inevitably,  I  had 
almost  said  legitimately — I  should  have  erred,  I  should 
have  been  false  to  the  dignity  of  this  pnlpit — inevitably, 
fatally,  love,  banished  from  conjugal  society,  will  es- 
tablish itself  separate  from  marriage,  just  as  marriage 
has  been  established  separate  from  love.  Thus  human 
nature  takes  its  triumphant  revenge  against  the  false- 
hood and  tyranny  of  social  prejudice.  Love,  only,  is 
overthrown  in  this  seeming  victory ;  it  perishes  in  the 
act  of  avenging  itself  There  is  no  marriage  worthy 
of  the  name  without  love !  But  then*  there  is  no  love 
worthy  of  the  name  without  marriage !  The  true  seat 
of  love,  the  seat  of  its  repose  and  dignity,  is  the  soul. 
But,  exiled  from  marriage,  love  is  by  that  very  fact 
exiled  from  the  soul.  It  ceases  to  be  a  virtuous  senti- 
ment, and  becomes  a  distempered  passion.  Thenceforth 
it  tears  itself  from  the  pure  heights  of  our  moral  being, 
peopled  with  those  joys  which  the  conscience  shares 
with  the  afiections — gaudiimi  de  veritate  conceptum — 


COKRUPTION  OF  THE  CONJUGAL  RELATION.    95 

and  goes  down,  down  to  those  troubled  regions  where 
the  spirit  is  imprisoned  within  the  senses,  and  sinking 
ever  lower  and  lower  along  this  swift  declivity,  and 
under  this  fatal  weight,  it  finally  deserts  the  soul  and 
becomes  the  tenant  of  the  body.  Love  then  is  no 
longer  love — it  is  lust !  . 

[3.  Father  Hyacinthe  next  considered  the  social  result  of  this 
separation  between  marriage  and  love.  Marriage  without  love 
tends  to  extinguish  the  true  type  of  the  wife ;  that  type  pre- 
eminently ennobling,  radiant  with  a  grace  at  once  so  alluring 
and  so  pure.  Gratia  super  gratiam^  mulier  sancta  et  pudorata. 
*'  Grace  upon  grace,  is  a  holy  and  modest  woman."*  Love  out- 
side of  maiTiage  tends  to  realize  the  type  of  the  harlot.'] 

More  than  once  I  have  had  to  speak  the  name  of  the 
harlot;  to-day  I  am  forced  to  stop  and  look  her  in  the 
face.  Shame  on  the  over-nice  and  prudish  surgeon 
who  shrinks  away  from  the  wound  which  he  ought  to 
examine  and  touch  and  heal ! 

The  Lord  said  of  his  chosen  people  :  "  There  shall  be 
no  harlot  of  the  daughters  of  Israel."!  The  word  of 
the  Lord  was  not  obeyed  ;  the  harlot  was  in  Israel,  and 
everywhere.  The  Greeks  knew  her ;  they  had  seen  her 
born  of  the  foam  of  their  azure  waves  and  the  rays  of 
their  fiery  sun.  But  the  Greeks  were  wrong.  She  is 
not  the  child  of  nature ;  she  is  the  child  of  humanity. 
Ah !  let  me  not  brand  her  infamy  upon  her  till  I  have 
first  done  her  justice  and  showed  her  mercy!  I  am 
bound  to  say,  even  in  the  presence  of  this  most  corrupt 
and  corrupting  being,  that  in  the  ruin  of  woman,  as  a 
general  rule,  man  is  the  great  criminal.  Woman  is  the 
victim — man,  the  murderer. 

It  is  not  prostitution  that  is  a  novelty  in  the  world ;  it 

*  Ecclesiasticus,  xxvi.  15.  +  Deut.  xxiii.  17. 


96  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

is  the  position  it  occupies.  Of  old  time,  prostitution  waa 
almost  exclusively  an  appendage  of  aristocracy  or  royal- 
ty. When  it  entered  France,  it  was  concealed  at  first ; 
but  afterward  it  came  forward,  unabashed,  among  those 
privileged  ranks  where  men  too  often  thought  them- 
selves above  the  laws — above  morality  itself;  and  there 
it  sowed  that  seed  of  storms  from  which  we  have 
reaped  a  harvest  of  whirlwinds!  But  truce  to  these 
memories !  Let  the  dead  rest  in  peace  !  The  wave  of 
revolution  has  swept  over  the  palaces  and  washed  them 
with  blood !  To-day  the  reign  of  the  harlot  is  more 
democratic.  Without  deserting,  alas !  the  mighty  of 
this  world,  she  has  constantly  enlarged  the  circle  of  her 
empire.  It  is  a  strange  application  of  the  law — the 
just  law — which  governs  modern  societ}^,  and  which 
tends,  little  by  little,  to  make  the  privilege  of  the  few 
the  common  property  of  all !  She  has  extended  her 
view  ;  she  has  reached  out  her  sceptre  over  the  different 
grades  of  the  social  hierarchy.  Formerly  it  was  only  a 
multitude,  to-day  it  is  a  world;*  and  this  world,  the 
"  half-world" — the  demi-monde — as  it  is  well  named,  at- 
tempts to  give  tone  and  fashion  to  the  real  world ;  must 
I  say  it.  Gentlemen  ?  in  sight  of  their  constantly  grow- 
ing success,  the  virtuous  woman,  unable  to  keep  by  her 
side  her  husband,  her  son,  it  may  be  her  father,  has 
more  than  once  been  driven,  in  her  anguish,  to  ask  the 
secret  of  this  fascination  :  "  What  power  has  this  strange 
woman,  and  why  may  I  not  have  it  ?"  She  has  watched 
that  leering  eye  and  marked  the  strange  fire  with  which 
it  glows ;  she  has  studied  that  smile,  the  inflexions  of 

*  "  Without  collecting,  as  I  have  done  for  the  past  ten  years,  the  grievances 
of  families  thwarted  in  their  dearest  interests,  it  would  not  be  possible  to 
suspect  the  social  disorders  produced  in  Paris  by  several  thousands  of  women 
acting  in  open  rebellion  against  the  duties  of  their  sex."— ("  Social  Reform 
in  France,"  by  M.  Le  Play,  I.,  p.  277,  second  edition.) 


CORRUPTION  OF  THE  CONJUGAL  RELATION.         97 

that  voice  and  the  motions  of  that  form;*  she  has 
searched  into  the  mysteries  of  those  toilets  and  that 
luxury ;  and  too  noble  and  too  pure  to  acquire  in  reali- 
ty the  arts  of  vicious  seduction,  she  has  acquired,  alas ! 
too  easily  their  outward  appearance. 

[Thus  the  first  characteristic  of  this  reign  of  corruption  is,  that 
it  is  spreading  more  and  more  amongst  us ;  its  second  characteristic 
is,  that  it  is  becoming  more  degraded  in  proportion  as  it  is  ex- 
tended ;  and  in  the  sphere  of  morals,  it  is  a  reflex  of  the  materi- 
alism of  doctrine  which  has  come  in  upon  us  like  a  flood.] 

They  tell  us  that  philosophic  doctrines  have  no  influ- 
ence on  the  morality  of  men.  I  reply,  that  they  have 
an  influence  even  on  their  immorality ;  that  they  fashion 
into  their  own  image  our  vices  almost  as  much  as  our 
virtues.  Yes,  in  societies  elevated  by  a  spiritual  phi- 
losophy, vice  has  difierent  sentiments  and  a  difierent 
language  from  what  it  has  in  communities  debased  by 
materialism,  and  which  glory  in  coming  from  the 
monkey,  to  end  in  nothingness,  or  in  worms !  In  the 
former,  the  influence  of  courtezans  is  derived  some- 
times— rarely,  it  is  true — from  their  heart ;  very  fre- 
quently, from  their  wit ;  always,  in  some  degree,  from 
their  grace  and  their  beauty.  But  in  our  day  all  these 
charms  are  supplied  by  a  single  one.  "  ]^o,  no,"  cries 
sensualism ;  "  we  don't  want  any  supplementary  attrac- 
tions. No  more  distraction  for  the  mind  and  heart ;  it 
is  a  bore  to  think,  and  an  effort  and  a  weariness  to  love ! 
No  more  sentiment,  but  sensation !  And  if  beauty  or 
youth  are  any  hindrance  to  this,  Avhat's  the  use  of  youth 
and  beauty  ?  0  Circe,  thou  sorceress,  give  me  thy  cup, 
\and  let  me  wallow  in  sensuality." 

*  "  Laet  not  after  her  beauty  in  thine  heart ;  neither  let  her  take  thee  with 
her  ej'elids."— Proi'erfi*,  vi.  25. 

5 


98  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

And  now  there  are  people  that  ask  me  not  to  he  in- 
dignant !  They  would  like  me  to  stop  coolly  at  the  refu- 
tation of  error,  and  choke  down  in  my  man's  heart,  my 
priest's  heart,  the  cry  of  moral  indignation  !  No  !  there 
is  something  more  here  than  an  error  in  logic :  it  is  a 
shame  upon  our  character  and  a  peril  to  our  social  ex- 
istence ! 

Part  Secokd. —  Violatmi  of  the   Legislation  of  3Iar- 
riage  hy  the  Immorality  of  the  Day. 

[In  setting  forth  the  ideal  of  the  conjugal  relation  in  the  last 
lecture,  Father  Hyacinthe  said  nothing,  strictly  speaking,  of  its 
legislation.  This  was  because  the  laws  which  govern  it,  in  its 
moral  and  religious  relations,  are  only  a  simple  corollary  from 
the  proposition  developed  in  that  lecture — that  marriage  is  love 
under  the  limitations  of  personal  respect  and  personal  dignity. 
These  laws  are  chiefly  two — unity  and  indissolubility.  They 
form  the  primitive  legislation  of  marriage,  at  once  natural  and 
divine,  and  they  are  anterior  to  all  ttie  positive  eiiactments  of  civil 
and  religious  poicers.'] 

I  know  well  enough  that  at  this  point,  too,  I  shall 
meet  with  gainsayers.  The  new  schools  affirm  that  man 
began  with  the  savage  state,  with  fetichism  in  relation  to 
God,  and  with  communism  in  relation  to  women.  This 
is  not  the  place  to  enter  into  an  exhaustive  discussion  on 
these  two  points.  Positivism,  which  forbids  us  all  in- 
quiries as  to  origin  and  end,  is  forever  stumbling  into 
such  inquiries  itself  Avithout  thinking  of  it ;  and  whatever 
it  may  say  for  itself,  it  is  by  the  merest  h}^otheses  that 
it  pretends  to  throw  light  upon  the  past  or  the  future  of 
mankind — hypotheses  unsupported  by  facts,  or  rather 
contradicted  by  all  the  data  of  experience.  For  these  sav- 
ages, from  whom  they  say  that  we  have  descended,  are  not 
only  to  be  found  in  remote  centuries.     We  have  no  need. 


CORKUPTION  OF  THE  CONJUGAL  RELATION.         99 

in  order  to  find  them,  to  grope  our  way  backward  into  the 
darkness  of  the  stone  age,  and  to  penetrate  into  the 
mysterious  caverns  that  have  been  excavated  by  our  ge- 
ologists. Africa  and  America,  on  their  scorching  sands 
or  in  their  icy  forests,  have  preserved  for  us  the  living  rep- 
resentatives of  these  tribes;  we  know  the  savages — we 
have  seen  them — we  have  spoken  with  them,  and  we  have 
recognized  in  their  moral  and  physical  type,  not  the  germ, 
but  the  decadence  of  humanity.  They  are  fallen,  or 
rather  degraded  races,  which  we  must  take  care  not  to 
confound  with  simple  barbarians.  Barbarians  can  rise 
from  their  fall — if  not  of  themselves,  at  least  by  contact 
with  a  foreign  civilization ;  but  savage  races  are  so 
crushed  under  the  sway  of  the  senses,  that  hitherto  not  a 
single  one — history  makes  affidavit  to  it — has  been  found 
susceptible  of  civilization.  They  are  to-day  what  they 
were  thousands  of  years  ago ;  asleep  on  the  confines  of 
brute  life,  they  do  not  even  dream  of  reascending  the 
frightful  declivity  down  which  they  have  fallen.  Ah ! 
if  savages  were  the  primitive  race  that  you  pretend,  and 
if  on  the  other  side,  as  you  also  assert,  progress  was  the 
destined  law  of  humanity,  there  would  be  no  more  sav- 
ages, no  more  barbarians,  the  entire  world  would  be  civ- 
ilized !  How  then,  and  by  what  hand,  so  often  continued 
from  age  to  age,  has  this  mighty  spring  of  progress  been 
relaxed  among  some  races  and  broken  among  others  ? 

[Here  Father  Hyacinthe,  having  re-established  the  facts  that 
had  been  denied  by  hypotheses^  shows  man  beginning  with  mono- 
theism and  monogamy — that  is,  with  the  two  great  principles  of 
natural  religion  and  natural  morality.  These  principles  were 
afterward  obscured,  in  consequence  of  original  sin,  but  they 
never  totally  perished  from  among  men.  The  sacred  deposit  of 
the  monotheistic  traditions  was  intrusted  to  Shem,  and  especially 
to  the  race  of  Abraham.     The  chain  of  monogamist  traditions 


100  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

was  continued  through  the  pure  and  vigorous  races  that  sprung 
from  Japhet ;  through  the  Greeks  and  Romans  in  theii*  best  days ; 
through  the  Celts,  the  Germans,  and  the  Scandinavians.  But 
polytheism  held  sway  among  them,  while  polygamy  was  tolerated 
among  the  Jews  ;  and  in  this  way,  the  two  civilizing  principles 
were  isolated  from  each  other.] 

The  children  of  Abraham,  especially  the  Jews,  wor- 
shipped one  God,  aloue,  solitary,  and  majestic  as  that 
desert  in  which  he  had  appeared  to  them,  lofty  and 
stern  as  the  sky  of  brass  above  their  heads.  They  were 
monotlieists,  like  their  father,  but  like  their  father,  also, 
they  were  polygamists.  Through  motives  of  profound 
wisdom,  which  it  is  not  my  present  duty  to  unfold,  God 
had  blessed  in  chastity  and  fecundity  the  limited  polyg- 
amy tliat  had  prevailed  under  the  tents  of  Abraham 
and  Jacob ;  and  afterward,  by  a  concession  needful  to 
the  training  of  this  rude  people,  Moses  had,  I  do  not 
say  approved,  but  tolerated  and  regulated  divorce  on 
the  part  of  the  husband.  "Erom  the  beginning  it  was 
not  so;  but  Moses,  because  of  the  hardness  of  your 
hearts,  suffered  you  to  put  away  your  wives  ;"* — because 
they  had  not  yet  hearts  pure  enough  and  tender  enough 
to  love  with  constancy  the  same  wife,  and  to  sacrifice 
everything  to  this  one  love. 

Polygamy  and  polytheism  divided  the  world  between 
them.  There  was  one  God  under  the  tents  of  Shem, 
the  poly ga mist ;  one  wife  at  the  fireside  of  Japhet,  the 
poIytJieist.  But,  lo !  the  hour  is  at  hand  for  universal 
reconciliation :  Japhet  shall  sit  down  under  the  tents 
of  Shem,  and  dwell  with  him,  in  brotherly  love:  "God 
shall  enlarge  Japhet,  and  he  shall  dwell  in  the  tents 
of  Shem."f  The  reconciler  and  organizer  of  our  race 
appears :  Christ  sends  his  apostles  to  proclaim  through- 

*  Matthew,  six.  8.  t  Genesis,  ix.  27. 


COEEUPTION  OF  THE  CONJUGAL  RELATION.       101 

out  tlie  entire  world  the  doctrine  of  one  God,  and  the 
duty  of  having  but  one  wife !  Then,  during  a  succes- 
sion of  terrible  but  most  fruitful  centuries,  Jews, 
Romans,  barbarians,  blended,  intermixed,  by  the  over- 
turnings  of  history  and  under  the  influence  of  the 
Church,  there  is  seen  rounding  into  form  this  unique 
civilization,  to  which  there  is  no  parallel  in  the  past  and 
can  be  no  successor  in  the  future,  the  grand  modern 
and  Christian  civilization,  whose  children  we  are.  Yes- 
terday it  was  called  Europe,  to-day,  The  West,  for 
America  joins  hands  with  Europe  across  the  ocean ;  to- 
morrow it  will  be  called  The  World,  and  it  will  be  for  this 
to  unite  at  last  in  one  resplendent  halo  on  the  brow  of 
mankind,  those  two  rays  of  Eden  for  so  long  separated, 
so  long  a  time  obscured,  monotheism  and  monogamy, 
the  worship  of  one  God  in  heaven  and  the  love  of  one 
w^oman  on  earth! 

[As  a  matter  of  7"ighi,  monogamy  belongs  to  natural  morality, 
as  monotheism  to  natural  religion.  As  a  matter  of  fad^  however 
(although  it  has  been  too  little  noticed),  Christianity  alone  hds 
had  the  power  to  establish  their  reign  and  maintain  it  and  make 
it  universal  in  the  world.  The  speaker  called  attention  to  the 
efforts  of  the  immoralit}^  of  the  age  in  comparison  with  the  efforts 
of  the  unbelief  of  the  age ;  the  one  striving  to  abolish  from  our 
morals  the  practice  of  monogamy;  the  other  striving  to  wrest  from 
our  minds  the  belief  in  monotheism.  Their  triumph  would  be  the 
advent  of  barbarism  to  Christendom. 

We  are  still  too  French  and  too  Catholic  to  have  the  unity  and 
indissolubility  of  marriage  effaced  from  our  codes.  But  the  im- 
morality of  the  age  tends  to  reduce  them  to  the  state  of  legal  fic- 
tions. It  multiplies  the  violation  of  them  in  common  life  with  a 
frequency  and  publicity  which  our  fathers  never  witnessed,  and 
against  which  public  opinion  has  ceased  to  protest.  It  parades 
them  as  a  spectacle,  amid  the  applauses  of  the  theatres ;  it  de- 
mands the  justification  of  them  at  the  hands  of  a  lying  philoso- 
phy, and  their  glorification  at  the  hands  of  a  corrupt  literature. 


102  DISCOURSES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

The  land  is  swarming  with  adulteries,  adulteries  of  old  so  rare, 
of  old  so  severely  branded  by  public  opinion,  so  severely  punished 
by  the  law  of  the  land ;  adulteries — the  violation  of  the  most 
sacred  rights  of  the  human  person !  The  scourge  of  the  harlot 
icithout  the  walls  of  home;  that  of  the  adulterous  wife  is 
within.l 

Part  Third. —  Violation  of  tlie   Conjugal  Relation  in 
its  Supernatxiral  Consecration  hy  the  Sacrament. 

[Father  Hyacinthe  had  already  shown,  in  the  last  lecture,  how 
marriage  has  been  elevated  by  Christ  to  the  dignity  of  a  sacra- 
ment. 

Now,  from  this  new  consecration,  the  two  great  laws  of  unity 
and  indissolubility  have  derived  at  once  a  more  absolute  rigor  and 
more  savored  significance.  The  union  of  husband  and  wife  in 
one  love  and  one  flesh,  should  be  the  living  image  of  the  union 
of  the  Word  with  human  nature  and  with  his  Church  in  the 
mystery  of  the  incarnation.  Now  Jesus  Christ  is  the  spouse  of 
but  one  :  He  has  espoused  one  Church,  and  cannot  be  divorced 
from  it.  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the 
world."* 

But  how  is  it  possible  to  elevate  and  maintain  at  such  heights 
ftO  earthly  and  inconstant  a  thing  as  the  human  heart  ?  Christ 
has  placed  in  the  sacrament  of  Christian  marriage  not  only  the 
8ig7i  which  enlightens,  but  the  force  which  sustains.] 

He  has  said  to  the  husband  and  the  wife,  "  Come  ta 
my  altar — come,  and  kindle  there  the  flame  of  a  pnre  and 
immortal  love."  And  ^ve  see  the  two  young  Christians 
coming  forward  amidst  flowers  and  incense,  and  the 
sweet  and  thrilling  harmonies  of  the  organ — they  are  no 
longer  bridegroom  and  bride,  but  two  priests ;  for  Chris- 
tian love  is  not  only  a  religion  but  a  priesthood !  They 
come  to  the  steps  of  the  altar  of  the  spotless  Lamb; 
they  look  at  the  sacred  tabernacle,  and  they  blush  not, 
neither  do  they  tremble !    The  invisible  angels  of  the 

*  Matthew,  xxviii.  20. 


CORRUPTION   OF  THE   CONJUGAL  RELATION.       103 

sanctuary  are  there,  and  we  hear  the  beat  and  rustle  of 
their  wings,  and  the  sweet  savor  of  the  love  of  heaven 
is  shed  down  upon  the  love  of  earth.  The  Catholic 
priest  is  there,  but,  0  strange  sight !  he  seems  despoiled 
(as  it  were)  of  the  omnipotence  of  his  priesthood.  He 
is  there,  delegated  by  the  Church  as  intercessor  and 
necessary  witness — as  intercessor,  to  pray  and  bless,  as 
witness  to  see  and  hear;  but  by  an  exception  unparal- 
leled in  the  economy  of  divine  things,  he,  the  dispenser 
of  all  the  sacraments,  from  baptism  to  extreme  unction, 
is  not  suffered  to  be  the  minister  of  this  amazing  sacra- 
ment. The  ministers  are  these  wedded  ones  themselves ; 
their  hearts  are  stirred  with  the  purest  and  deepest  in- 
fluences alike  of  grace  and  of  nature ;  their  voices  trem- 
ble, but  do  not  hesitate,  and  while  their  hands  are  joined 
in  a  holy  clasp,  two  words  fall  from  their  lips  and  are 
blended  in  one  harmony :  "  I  take  thee  for  my  wedded 
husband" — "I  take  thee  for  my  wedded  wife."  Enough. 
By  one  act,  in  the  presence  of  the  witnessing  priest,  and 
angels,  and  God,  they  have  sealed  the  compact  of  their 
natural  love,  and  the  sacrament  of  their  supernatural 
union. 

This  is  marriage  as  our  fathers  understood  it.  It  is 
the  fashion,  now-a-days,  to  say  that  all  this  is  a  very  fine 
theory ! 

In  this  decay  of  faith  of  which  we  are  witnesses,  the 
sacrament  of  marriage  becomes  for  many  Christians  a 
religious  fiction,  as  the  text  of  our  codes  has  become  a 
legal  fiction.  Its  forms  are  observed  from  considerations 
of  propriety  and  conventionalit}^,  but  the  sign  that  en- 
lightens and  the  force  that  sustains  are  things  which  are 
not  remembered  as  they  ought  to  be. 

And  yet  is  it  not  here  that  we  must  seek  the  true  source 
of  those  nobler  inspirations  and  those  more  generous 


104  DISCOURSES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

deeds,  which  the  steadfastness  of  married  life  demands  ? 
For  in  marriage  there  is  something  more  than  a  mere 
compact. 

"  The  chief  thing  in  marriage"  (so  says  a  noble  Chris- 
tian writer  of  our  own  day,  with  admirable  felicity  of 
expression),  "  the  chief  thing  in  marriage  is  a  sacrifice, 
or  rather  two  sacrifices.  The  sacrificing  priest  and 
priestess  bear  in  their  hands  two  cups ;  and  these  two 
cups  must  needs  be  alike  filled  to  the  brim,  in  order 
that  the  union  may  be  holy  and  be  blessed  of  heayen."* 
These  two  cups,  my  friends,  are  filled  with  tears  as  well 
as  joys. 

True  love  is  more  than  a  passion;  it  is  a  virtue. 
Therefore  it  should  stand  in  no  fear  of  the  disappoint- 
ments and  the  bitterness  the  future  cannot  but  have  in 
store  for  it.  But  how  could  love  be  a  virtue,  but  that 
it  rests  on  God  ? 

[The  Lecture  concluded  as  follows  :] 

Our  trouble  at  the  present  day  comes  from  these  two 
causes :  we  have  separated  love  from  marriage,  and  we 
have  separated  marriage  from  God.  It  is  time  for  a 
reaction  against  these  two  errors.  Let  us  have  a  moral 
marriage,  wiiich  shall  unite  two  persons  with  the  bond 
of  personal  love,  the  only  bond  worthy  of  them ;  let  us 
have  a  Christian  marriage,  which  shall  cement  this 
union  with  the  indestructible  power  of  God!  Then 
we  shall  have  restored  from  its  ruins  conjugal  society. 
Then  we  shall  be  able  to  face  Europe  with  confidence, 
and  say,  "We  are  the  same  old  France  still,  ever  in  the 
van  of  all  your  forward  movements,  the  van  of  the 
progress  of  thought  and   character !     Europe  cannot 

*  Ozanam,  "  Civilization  in  the  Fifth  Century.'"    Lecture  on  The  Christian 
Women. 


COKKUPTION   OF  THE   CONJUGAL   EELATION.       105 

perish.  She  is  like  that  bark  that  was  bearing  Csesar 
through  the  storm.  "Fear  not,"  said  the  dictator, 
"you  are  bearing  C^sar  and  his  fortune!"  AVe  too 
may  say  to  Europe,  to  America,  to  Christendom : 
"Fear  not.  The  thunderbolt  may  rend  the  sky — the 
abyss  may  yawn  beneath  your  feet — fear  not,  you  are 
bearing  Christ  and  his  Church."  Western  Christendom 
cannot  perish. 

But  one  thing  is  not  im]30ssible — God  forbid  that  it 
should  ever  come  to  pass ! — that  France  should  descend 
to  an  inferior  rank  in  Christendom.  Ah !  if  to  those 
great  Christian  countries — that  Germany  that  fasts 
upon  the  eve  of  battle,  and  carries  the  New  Testament 
in  the  shako  of  her  soldiers ;  that  England  that  offers 
her  common  prayer  on  the  days  of  public  humiliation, 
and  kee]3S  her  Sabbath  rest,  the  glory  of  her^  industry 
and  civilization ;  that  America  which,  at  every  crisis 
of  her  national  life,  proclaims  her  faith  in  God  as  the 
foundation  of  her  safety  and  her  greatness ; — if,  I  say, 
we  have  nothing  left  to  send  to  these  countries  but  the 
echo  of  an  abject — yes,  abject  skepticism,  and  an  im- 
morality more  abject  still — great  God,  what  is  to  be- 
come of  France?  0  call  no  longer  upon  liberty  and 
democracy  !  Prate  no  more  of  a  just  balance  of  power ! 
The  direct,  legitimate  heir — it  is  a  law  of  Providence  in 
heaven,  and  it  is  a  laAv  of  human  nature  on  the  earth — 
the  direct,  legitimate  heir  of  all  skepticism  and  corrup- 
tion, is  not  freedom  ;  it  is  slavery ! 

?;« 


LECTURE    FOURTH. 

December  23,  1866. 


FATHEEHOOD. 

Gentlemex  :  I  have  finished  what  I  had  to  say  upon 
the  conjugal  relation ;  and  in  spite  of  the  fatigue  which 
I  had  to  struggle  against  last  Sunday,  thanks  to  God, 
and  thanks  to  you,  I  was  able  fairly  to  reach  the  end 
of  this  important  subject.  We  looked  at  it,  you  will 
remember,  under  the  two  aspects  which  all  topics  rela- 
ting to  humanity  present — the  positive  aspect,  and  the 
negative  aspect — the  aspect  of  light  and  the  aspect  of 
darkness.  In  the  light  of  God  the  Creator  and  of  God 
the  Redeemer,  we  saw  this  conjugal  relation  to  be 
founded  in  love — love  on  its  earthly  side,  and  love  on 
its  heavenly  side — natural  love,  j)erfect,  tender,  chaste, 
between  man  and  wife — supernatural  love,  which  is  at 
once  a  reflection  and  a  portion  of  that  which  subsists 
between  Christ  and  his  Church.  From  these  two  forms 
of  love,  blended  into  one,  we  easily  deduced  the  two 
principal  laws  of  the  conjugal  relation — unity  and 
inclissoluhility.  Passing  then  to  the  negative  element, 
as  it  has  been  brought  into  existence  during  the  course 
of  ages,  by  the  weakness  and  perversity  of  mankind, 
we  observed  that  the  evils  of  the  conjugal  relation,  the 
violation  of  its  laws  and  the  perversion  of  its  idea, 
arise  from  the  fact  that  it  has  been  separated  both  from 


FATHERHOOD.  107 

affection  and  from  religion.  Men  have  wanted  mar- 
riage without  love,  and  without  God! 

I  have  now  to  complete  the  idea  of  the  conjugal 
relation  by  speaking  to  you  oi fatherhood. 

Gentlemen,  the  primary  object  of  the  conjugal  rela- 
tion is  to  be  found  in  the  relation  itself.  This  object, 
which  in  the  first  Lecture  I  called  intrinsic,  is  the 
personal  and  Christian  love  of  the  married  pair — the 
perfect  union  that  is  set  up  between  them.  When  love 
is  real,  when  it  is  pure  and  deep,  it  has  no  other  object 
than  itself;  we  love  for  the  sake  of  loving,  and  that  is 
all.  But  there  is  an  extrinsic  purpose  in  the  conjugal 
relation,  not  less  important,  not  less  essential  than  the 
former — the  reproduction  of  the  individual,  and  the 
propagation  of  the  species.  These  two  terms,  harmoni- 
ously blended,  consecrate  paternity  as  the  highest  act 
of  human  life  in  the  plane  of  nature.  We  will  consider 
them  one  by  one. 

But  before  beginning,  let  us  pause  for  a  moment  of 
religious  recollection.  Let  me,  for  my  part,  a  son  of  the 
apostles  and  an  ambassador  of  Jesus  Christ,  remember 
those  great  words  that  were  breathed  from  the  lips  of 
the  apostle  Paul  over  the  cradle  of  Christianity :  "  I  bow 
my  knees  unto  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
from  whom  every  fatherhood  in  heaven  and  earth  is 
named."*  Yes,  and  I  too  bow  my  knees,  bend  my  in- 
tellect, and  prostrate  my  soul  before  this  Fatherhood, 
which  is  at  once  the  origin  and  end  of  that  human 
fatherhood,  whose  obligations,  whose  glory,  whose  fe- 
licity, my  stammering  tongue  would  strive  to  utter 
forth !  * 

*  Ephesians,  iii.  14,  15.  The  Vulgate  translation  (constantly  cited  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  pulpit)  has  ex  quo  omnis  paternitaff .  .  .  naminatur,  which  is 
much  nearer  to  the  original  than  the  common  English  version.  "  Every  line- 
age"  would  be,  perhaps,  the  njoet  nearly  equivalent  phrasQ,— Tp, 


108  DISCOURSES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

Part  First. — Fatherliood  coiisiderecl  as  the  Means  of 
Reproduction  of  tlie  Individual. 

I  was  saying,  Gentlemen,  that  man,  at  his  entrance 
into  the  world,  finds  himself  confronted  by  two  myste- 
rious laws,  which  dominate  all  his  future — the  law  of 
sex  and  the  law  of  death. 

We  have  seen  how  man  triumphs  over  the  law  of  sex, 
and  makes  it  a  law  of  honor  and  happiness,  in  the  con- 
jugal relation.  But  the  law  of  sex  is  a  law  of  nature ; 
the  law  of  death  is  a  result  of  sin.  Therefore,  against 
death  the  whole  nature  and  jDerson  of  man  rebels.  Ah ! 
for  my  part,  I  know  that  there  are  no  minds,  save  those 
that  have  been  spoiled  by  long  indulgence  in  sophistry, 
or,  perhaps,  in  immorality,  that  can  look  On  death  and 
annihilation  with  indifference.  The  unperverted  man 
hungers  and  thirsts  for  immortality!  God  promises 
him  an  immortality  beyond  the  grave,  in  the  eternal 
world:  first,  the  immortality  of  his  soul;  afterward, 
"in  the  last  day,"  the  immortality  of  his  body,  which  is 
also  to  come  forth  from  the  darkness  of  the  grave.  But 
this  is  not  enough.  Man  is  not  content  to  become  im- 
mortal in  the  future  world ;  he  would  be  immortal  in 
the  present  world.  And  so,  indeed,  he  becomes,  through 
fatherhood.  In  the  fulness  of  his  life  and  strength,  in 
the  maturity  of  his  reason  and  affections,  man  has 
measured  himself,  in  spirit,  against  death,  and  has  said, 
"  Good !  I  can  master  him !  I  shall  open  in  my  blood 
a  fountain-head  of  life,  and  with  my  blood  I  shall  im- 
part my  soul,  and  with  my  soul  I  shall  bequeath  my 
works.  I  shall  still  act  among  men,  I  shall  dwell  for- 
ever in  the  land  of  the  living !" 

It  is  the  triple  victory  of  fatherhood  over  death — by 
it^  lloody  by  its  $onJy  by  its  v^ork. 


FATHERHOOD.  109 

1.  And  first,  the  father  gives  his  Hood,  and  with  it 
that  physical  life  of  which  the  blood  is  the  principal 
and  the  base. 

Have  you  seen,  Gentlemen,  in  our  ancient  forests,  an 
old  oak  bending  under  the  weight  of  centuries,  and 
almost  ready  to  crumble  into  dust  ?  Before  the  catas- 
trophe, it  has  foreseen  it,  we  might  say,  by  the  sure  in- 
stinct of  nature,  and  has  sown  around  itself  young  and 
vigorous  offshoots,  full  of  its  sap,  and  lusty  with  its 
life.  Man,  also,  is  to  die.  The  tree  bends  beneath  the 
weight  of  its  peaceful  centuries ;  man,  less  happy,  be- 
neath the  burden  of  his  few  and  evil  years.  But  he, 
also,  has  made  of  himself  twain :  one  he  leaves  to  fade 
away  in  death  and  wither  in  the  tomb;  he  sees  the 
other  springing  into  life,  and  shooting  out  into  the 
future.  It  is  his  own  flesh  that  buds  and  flowers  again 
in  this  other  flesh;  it  is  his  own  bones  that,  renew- 
ing their  youth,  are  the  framework  that  supports  it; 
it  is  his  blood  which  flows  and  throbs  in  these  veins, 
and  his  heart  which  lives  again  in  this  heart.  Carve 
thy  wrinkles  on  m}''  brow.  Old  Age !  Whiten  my  head 
with  the  chill  and  dreary  blast  that  breathes  from  out 
the  place  of  tombs !  thrust  me,  bowed  and  unresisting, 
down  that  steep  decline  which  no  one  reascends !  I  have 
vanquished  death  by  fatherhood!  His  dart  is  broken 
by  the  hands  of  my  children !  "  0  Grave,  where  is  thy 
victory  ?     0  Death,  where  is  thy  sting  ?"* 

2.  But  it  is  not  only  the  body  of  the  father,  in  some 
sense,  it  is  his  soul,  that  lives  again  in  his  children. 

Of  all  the  mysteries  which  we  carry  within  us,  the 
one  least  understood  by  science,  least  explained  by  reve- 
lation itself,  is  that  of  human  generation.     A  sacred 

*  1  Cor.  XV.  55. 


110  DISCOUIISES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

veil  covers  the  cradle  of  life.  I  will  imitate  the  reserve 
of  the  Church  upon  these  problems,  before  which  the 
genius  of  her  illustrious  doctors  has  paused  in  hesita- 
tion, and  leaving  the  secret  things  to  God,  will  content 
myself  by  asserting  the  mystery.  The  fact,  which  may 
be  proved  but  cannot  be  explained,  is  this :  the  son  bears 
the  impress  of  the  moral  nature  of  his  father;  he  is  not 
only  the  offspring  of  his  flesh  and  his  bones,  he  is  also 
the  offspring  of  his  soul. 

It  seems  to  me  that  we  get  here  a  glimpse  of  light 
on  the  mystery.  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  tells  us  somewhere 
that  the  son  is  borne  into  existence  by  the  soul  of  the 
father.*  The  principle  of  life  in  man  is  but  one ;  it  is 
the  soul  itself:  according  to  the  elegant  formula  of  the 
schoolmen,  the  soul  is  the  formal  cause  oftlie  tody.  The 
act  of  fatherhood,  then,  is  an  act  of  the  soul.  The 
whole  soul  is  concerned  in  it ;  it  goes  forth  therein  in 
love,  from  husband  to  wife,  from  wife  to  husband,  and 
descending,  through  the  parental  relation,  this  glo- 
rious scale,  goes  forth  from  parent  to  child.  The 
parents,  so  to  speak,  have  shaped  by  their  souls  the 
body  of  their  child ;  and  when,  from  the  bosom  of  God, 
at  the  summons  of  the  father,  there  comes  down  a  soul 
into  this  sacred  mould,  it  finds  there  fold  upon  fold  pre- 
pared to  receive  it,  and  I  know  not  what  circumvolu- 
tions of  matter,  in  which  are  traced  already,  to  a  certain 
extent,  the  lineaments  of  the  mind.  Away,  then,  with 
the  materialism  which  denies  the  action  of  the  soul,  aud 
even  its  very  existence !  but  away,  also,  with  the  exclu- 
sive and  senseless  spiritualism,  which  denies  the  close 
alliance  of  the  two  substances,  and  the  legitimate  influ- 
ence of  the  body  upon  the  soul !     "  And  Adam  begat  a 

*  Est  qusedam  motio  ab  anima  patris.— (Z?c  Malo^  quteptio  iv.  Art.  6.) 


FATHERHOOD.  Ill 

son  in  his  own  likeness,  after  his  image."*  The  parents 
transmit  to  their  children,  with  a  resemblance  in  feature, 
something  of  a  resemblance  in  soul ;  with  their  physical 
temperament,  something  of  their  moral  temperament; 
and  the  work  of  assimilation  Avhich  education  is  to 
carry  out,  begins  with  the  very  fact  of  parentage. 

Here,  then,  we  have  a  man  who  lives  again,  both  in 
his  body  and  in  his  soul,  and  who  can  go  on  with  his 
own  work. 

[Here,  before  showing  how  the  father  hands  down  his  work  to 
his  son,  the  speaker  drew  from  the  idea  of  paternity  this  first  les- 
son of  duty — the  law  of  worthiness.] 

Every  sound  moral  is  derived  from  a  doctrine.  I  have 
set  forth  the  doctrine  of  fatherhood,  and  you  see  how 
this  first  law  of  duty  springs  from  it  at  once — to  be  a 
father  one  must  be  worthy  of  the  office.  To  us,  fathers 
of  souls,  priests  in  the  sphere  of  the  supernatural  and 
divine,  there  comes  a  command  from  heaven,  "  No  man 
taketh  this  honor  unto  himself,  but  he  that  is  called 
of  God,  as  was  Aaron."f  And  may  I  not  bring  home 
this  stern  command  to  you,  priests  of  the  family,  fathers 
of  the  body,  indeed,  but  also  of  the  soul,  in  the  sphere 
of  the  natural  and  human  ?  May  I  not  say  to  you  : 
Take  not  this  honor  unto  yourselves,  unless  ye  be 
called ;  dare  not  usurp  these  lofty  functions,  if  ye  be  not 
worthy  ? 

Thou  who  art  yet  in  the  early  spring  of  youth,  some 
day  you  shall  be  worthy,  but  not  yet.  Do  not  think 
that  fatherhood  is  some  common  thing — a  means,  and 
not  an  end ;  something  to  be  thrown  to  a  child  as  an 
outside  defence  against  temptation — a  borrowed  shield 
against  the  dangers  of  youth !     Learn  to  wait  in  the 

*  Genesis,  v.  3.  t  Hebrews,  v,  4. 


112  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HTACINTHE. 

vigils  of  toil  and  chastity ;  and  when  you  have  fairly 
developed  to  its  full  maturity  that  grand  human  nature 
which  you  bear  within  you,  you  may  begin  to  dream  of 
transmitting  it! 

And  you,  young  man,  there  was  a  time,  perhaps,  when 
you  were  w^orthy,  but  you  are  not  now !  What  have  you 
done  with  the  integrity  of  human  nature  ?  Avhat  have 
you  done  with  those  two  elements  of  paternity,  a  sound 
body  and  a  sound  mind?*  Ah!  as  I  was  just  saying, 
our  blood  is  within  us,  but  it  is  not  ours  :  mine  belongs 
to  my  ancestors  in  the  past ;  yours,  to  your  descendants 
in  the  future.  It  is  a  trust,  a  trust  more  sacred  than 
deposits  of  gold.  And  yet  you  have  not  known  how  to 
keep  this  treasure  of  the  blood,  with  which  you  have 
been  put  in  trust  for  other  generations.  You  dare  not 
bequeath  to  your  sons  the  poor,  dwindled  current,  or  the 
deadly  poison  which  is  flowing  in  your  veins !  There  is 
such  a  thing  as  a  blood  of  the  soul,  "  sanguis  quidmn 
animcB,^^  as  St.  Augustine  says,  the  blood  of  principles 
in  the  intellect,  and  the  blood  of  virtues  in  the  will. 
This  blood  of  the  soul  you  have  squandered  in  the  de- 
bauches of  skepticism,  as  you  have  squandered  the  blood 
of  the  body  in  the  debauches  of  immorality.  You  have 
lost  the  energy  of  truth,  you  have  not  even  the  energy 
of  falsehood.  Impotent  to  deny  Christianity  as  you  are 
to  affirm  it,  exhausting  yourself  in  the  sterile  luxury 
of  doubt,  you  poor,  pitiful  eunuch  in  matters  of  intel- 
lect and  conscience — what!  you  would  be  a  father! 
when  there  does  not  lie  in  you  the  divine  seed  that  men 
are  made  of  ?     No !  no !  it  is  not  for  you. 

3d.  [After  liaving  thus  deduced  from  the  first  two  characteris- 
tics of  fatherhood  the  law  of  worthiness,  the  speaker  proceeds  to 
consider  the  third  characteristic,  immortality  in  works.l 

*  "  Mens  gana  in  corpore  sano." 


TATHERHOOD.  113 

Every  man  has  a  work  to  do  in  the  world,  a  work  of  the 
intellect,  or  a  work  of  the  hands ;  and  there  is  intellect 
eyen  in  the  work  of  the  hands — "  by  the  intelligence  of 
his  hands,"  as  the  Scripture  says.*  And  when  man  once 
understands  this  profound  and  noble  law  of  work,  he  no 
longer  submits  to  it  as  a  necessity,  no  longer  regards  it 
as  a  retribution,  or  as  a  mere  means  of  acquiring  ease  or 
wealth ;  all  these  ideas,  no  doubt,  have  their  legitimate 
and  powerful  influence  in  his  purposes,  but  the  charm 
of  work  is  quite  another  thing.  I  was  just  saying  that 
love,  in  one  sense,  is  the  end  of  love.  I  may  say  the 
same  of  work.  Man  loves  labor  for  the  labor's  sake ;  he 
devotes  himself  to  his  particular  work  for  the  sake  of 
that  work,  and  for  the  direct  and  immediate  results 
which  are  to  proceed  from  it. 

It  is  the  husbandman,  the  first  of  human  workmen, 
who  has  best  preserved  the  inheritance  and  work  of 
Adam  upon  the  earth.  "/  am  a  Imsbandman ;  and 
Adam  is  my  exaiyij^le  from  my  youth" \  He  looks  at 
earth,  through  all  her  thorns  and  briers,  in  her  seeming 
ugliness,  but  hidden  beauty,  and  says :  "  I  love  thee !  be 
my  bride :  I  will  give  thee  the  sweat  of  my  brow,  and  thou 
shalt  give  me  thy  fruit;  and  thou  shalt  be  a  fertile 
mother  of  mankind !"  He  loves  the  earth,  then,  both 
for  herself  and  for  her  fruits;  he  loves  the  fields  for 
themselves,  and  for  the  splendor  of  the  golden  harvest 
which  covers  them  in  summer ;  he  loves  the  vines  for 
the  abundant  and  fruitful  branches  of  autumn,  and  for 
the  new  wine  which  rejoices  the  heart  of  man.  These 
trees  which  he  plants,  and  under  whose  shade  he  shall 
never  sit,  he  loves  them  for  themselves,  and  for  the  sake 
of  his  children  and  his  children's  children,  who  are  to 
sit  beneath  the  shadow  of  their  spreading  boughs. 

*  Psalm  Ixxviii.  72.  t  Zechariah,  xiii.  5.    (Vulgate.) 


114  DISCOUESES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

The  merchant  and  the  mechanic  devote  themselves  to 
their  handicraft  and  their  commerce,  as  the  laborer  to 
the  soil;  they  pride  themselves  npon  the  wonderful 
things  which  they  produce  or  exchange.  They  love  their 
work,  down  to  the  very  tools  they  handle ;  they  love  the 
labors  of  their  days  and  the  watches  of  their  nights,  the 
anxieties  of  their  uncertain  youth  and  the  triumphs  of 
their  riper  years. 

In  fact,  it  is  the  same  with  all  work,  under  whatever 
form  and  in  whatever  sphere  :  the  magistrate  adminis- 
ters justice  out  of  respect  to  justice;  the  philosopher 
searches  for  truth  from  love  of  truth ;  the  artist  gives 
expression  to  the  beautiful,  from  his  passion  for  the 
beautiful. 

Thus  it  becomes  the  legitimate  and  profound  desire 
of  the  father  of  a  family  to  see  the  work  to  which  he 
has  devoted  his  life  descend  to  his  children,  and  be 
continued  by  them ;  and  such  is  in  fact  the  custom  of 
well-established  society,  which  is  at  once  traditional 
and  progressive — either  before  it  enters  into  the  great 
crisis  through  whicli  we  are  now  passing,  or  after  it  has 
emerged  therefrom. 

If,  then,  we  do  not  find  it  always  thus  amongst  us, 
it  must  be  attributed  to  circumstances.  Human  nature 
has  not  changed,  and  when  the  father  cannot  bequeath 
his  work  in  its  exact  form,  he  strives  at  least  to  be- 
queath it  in  those  grand  traditions  of  probity  and 
honor,  of  patriotism  and  religion,  which  are  connected 
with  his  fortune  and  his  name.  When  he  has  done 
that,  a  man  can  afford  to  die ;  for  he  has  bound  to- 
gether in  one  firm  association  the  two  dearest  creations 
of  his  life — his  work  and  his  son  ;  he  has  won  for  him- 
self a  real  immortality  upon  the  earth ;  and  from  that 
other  immortality   wliicli   he    shall    enjoy  in  heaven 


FATHEEHOOD.  115 

among  the  chosen  ones,  in  the  bosom  of  God,  he  shall 
smile  upon  his  race  with  a  SAveet  and  holy  pride,  and 
shall  bless  them,  like  Jehovah,  to  the  third,  the  fourth, 
the  thousandth  generation. 

[In  concluding,  as  follows,  what  he  had  to  say  of  fatherhood 
in  its  relation  to  the  individual,  the  preacher  showed  from  the 
foregoing  considerations  the  origin  of  the  perpetual  authority  of 
the  fatlier  over  his  children.] 

An  illnstrious  thinker  has  said :  "  The  child  is  always 
a  minor  before  Nature,  even  when  he  is  of  age  before 
the  State.  The  paternal  authority  is  essentially  per- 
petual." In  a  certain  sense,  the  child  comes  to  his 
majority  the  day  that  he  fairly  attains  the  age  of 
reason ;  he  has  from  that  time  a  sense  of  justice  and 
injustice,  he  is  free  and  responsible,  he  holds  directly 
from  his  own  conscience  and  from  God.  But  if  man  is 
essentially  free  by  virtue  of  his  personality  and  his 
manhood,  he  is  essentially  subject,  as  a  derived  being, 
and  as  a  son.  And  as  the  statue,  the  picture,  the 
melody,  the  inspired  book,  if  they  had  souls,  would 
constantly  refer  their  existence  to  the  creative  soul 
from  which,  in  some  hour  of  genius,  of  anguish,  of 
rapture,  they  had  sprung,  just  so  the  son  of  man,  if  he 
have  the  spirit  of  a  son,  even  though  his  brow  be  bald, 
and  his  hair  be  white,  will  bow  his  white  hair  and  his 
bald  forehead  in  respect,  in  love,  and  in  obedience  be- 
fore the  ever  venerable  head  of  him  to  whom  he  owes 
his  being  and  his  life ! 

Part   Secokd. — Fatherhood  considered  as   the  Means 
of  Reproduction  of  the  Haman  Race. 

[In  leaving  the  sphere  of  the  individual,  wide  as  it  is,  to  pass 
to  the  social  sphere,  which  is  still  wider,  Father  Hyacinthe  spoke 


116  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

of  paternity  as  laying  aside  all  tliat  it  has  of  narrow  and  almost 
selfish.  The  father,  in  this  view,  is  no  longer  the  creator  of  his 
son,  but  the  creator  of  the  humanity.'] 

1st.  We  are  asked  every  day  by  false  science :  "  But 
what  is  your  God  busy  about  ?  Nowhere,  in  nature, 
can  we  find  his  personal  action,  but  only  laws,  calm, 
solemn,  immutable  as  fate  itself."  Well,  it  is  true! 
Since  he  placed  man  as  his  vicegerent  upon  earth,  God 
has  retired  from  the  field  of  direct  and  personal  action. 
He  reposes,  as  on  a  throne,  upon  the  majesty  and  im- 
mutability of  these  laws,  which  hide  him  so  well  from 
the  proud,  and  reveal  him  so  clearly,  so  divinely  to 
true  thinkers  and  true  believers;  "he  rests  from  all 
his  work  that  he  has  made."*  God  created  man,  but- 
he  left  to  man  the  glory  of  finishing  the  greatest  of  his 
works,  and  creating  the  human  race.  "Male  and 
female  created  he  them,"  says  the  sacred  historian; 
"and  God  blessed  them,  and  God  said  unto  them:  Be 
fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth,  and 
subdue  it ;  and  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea, 
and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  every  living  thing 
that  moveth  upon  the  earth."f 

"  Be  fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth  I" 
It  is  this  great  command  that  the  married  pair  still 
hear  resounding  through  the  depths  of  their  love,  if  so 
be  they  are  intelligent  enough  and  pure  enough  to 
penetrate  the  secret  of  that  love.  It  is  no  longer  an 
individual  love;  it  is  a  humanitarian  love.  It  is  no 
longer  the  home,  that  sweet  and  cherished  home,  that 
is  to  be  peopled;  it  is  the  w^orld.  "Eeplenish  the 
earth  r  It  is  no  longer  a  particular  family  which 
they  dream  of  creating ;   it  is  the  entire  human  race ! 

*  Genesis,  ii.  2.  t  Genesis,  i.  27,  28. 


FATHERHOOD.  117 

They  hear  this  voice  in  the  understanding,  and  they 
catch  the  echo  of  it  in  their  hearts ;  they  are  rapt  in  a 
sacred  ecstasy;  they  feel  themselves,  in  some  sort,  the 
priests  of  humanity !  I  have  said  that  marriage  was  a 
priesthood,  and  I  have  no  thought  of  retracting  it.  It  is 
the  true  priesthood  of  natural  religion.  I  even  suspect 
that  had  it  not  been  for  the  sin  of  our  first  father,  it 
would  have  been  the  only  priesthood.  They  feel  them- 
selves priests.  They  are  priests  ;  they  look  upward  like 
the  priest  at  the  altar — upward  to  Jehovah,  the  father 
of  all  creatures ;  upward,  in  the  clear  light  of  faith,  and 
the  light  of  reason  also.  For  man's  reason,  whatever 
may  be  said  of  it,  is  the  direct  and  living  reflection  of 
God's  reason.  For  the  ideas  by  which  it  is  filled  and 
illuminated  are,  as  St.  Augustine  has  so  well  said,  prin- 
cipal forms  and  radiations  of  the  things  which  exist  in 
the  eternal  intelligence  :  idm  sunt  formcB  qiicedam  j^rin- 
cipales  et  radiationes  rerum  qnm  in  intelUgentia  divina 
continentur.  Well,  then,  in  their  human  reason  and  in 
their  Christian  faith,  in  these  royal  forms  and  in  these 
divine  illuminations,  the  married  pair  behold  one  of  the 
most  sublime  and  glorious  of  conceptions,  the  concep- 
tion of  human  nature,  and  they  cry :  0  God,  send  to 
us  this  marvellous  gift !  And  like  Tobias  and  Sara,  in 
the  twilight  of  their  chaste  nuptials,  kneeling  before 
the  marriage  bed,  breathing  forth  that  song  which  the 
Holy  Scriptures  have  preserved  for  us,*  so  the  bride 
and  bridegroom  of  humanity,  the  wedded  ones  of  the 
new  Israel,  breathe  the  like  aspiration — "  Blessed  art 
thou,  0  God  of  our  fathers;  let  the  heavens  and  the 
earth  bless  thee,  and  the  sea,  and  the  rivers,  and  the 
fountains  abounding  with  water !  Let  everything  that 
liveth  and  moveth  in  the  creation  show  forth  thy  praise, 

*  Tobit,  viii.  5. 


118  DISCOURSES   OF   FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

0  Fatlier!  Author  of  life!  And  from  iis  grant  that  a 
holy  posterity  may  proceed,  that  shall  sing  thy  holy 
name  from  generation  to  generation !" 

2cl.  [The  speaker  next  proceeds  to  follow  out  this  idea  of  the 
office  of  fatherhood  in  the  propagation  of  the  human  race,  into 
the  special  form  in  which  it  appears  in  the  reproduction  of  a 
nation.l 

The  vast  body  of  humanity  has  members  and  organs : 
these  are  races  and  nations.  The  races  and  nationalities 
of  humanity  are  of  divine  institution.  I  know  that 
human  law  came  afterward ;  and  because  it  is  law  I 
honor  it, — law  of  nations — law  of  war — law  of  treaties ; 
but  behind  all  these  laws  there  is  another,  the  law  of 
God ! — the  law  of  the  same  blood  flowing  in  the  same 
veins,  the  law  of  the  same  tongue  speaking  through  the 
same  lips,  the  law  of  the  same  ideas  and  the  same  char- 
acter, the  law  of  the  same  loves,  and,  if  need  be,  the 
same  hatreds.  There  has  been  a  typical  race  through 
which  God  has  spoken  to  all  nations,  a  race  old  as  the 
w^orld,  and  wliicli  still  endures,  strong  and  rugged  as 
the  rock  of  Sinai,  where  it  was  born,  as  the  loins  of  the 
old  nonagenarian  patriarch,  in  which  it  was  borne. 
And  what  is  said  to  this  race  ?  "  Eemember  the  days 
of  old,  when  the  Most  High  divided  to  the  nations  their 
inheritance;  when  he  separated  the  sons  of  Adam; 
when  he  set  the  bounds  of  the  people  according  to  the 
number  of  the  children  of  Israel.  For  the  Lord's  por- 
tion is  his  people ;  Jacob  is  the  lot  of  his  inheritance."* 

Away,  then,  without  ceremony,  with  the  patriotism 
which  cuts  itself  off  from  humanity — which  is  anti- 
humanitarian  !  Away  with  that  humanitarianism,  too, 
which  cuts  itself  off  from  country,  and  is  anti -patriotic  !• 

*  Deut.  xxxix.  7-9. 


FATHERHOOD.  119 

It  is  in  our  own  race,  above  all,  in  our  own  blood  and 
speech,  that  we  ought  to  love  the  whole  race  of  man  ! 

0  husband  and  wife,  grand,  ideal,  Christian  husband 
and  wife,  it  is  not  alone  at  the  altar  of  your  kind  that 
you  minister,  but  at  the  altar  of  your  country!  The 
question  is,  shall  our  country  be  preserved?  I  am 
speaking  as  a  Frenchman,  to  Frenchmen !  The  ques- 
tion is,  shall  France,  our  great  and  beloved  France,  be 
expanded,  elevated  if  possible,  but  at  least  saved  from 
humiliation  and  decay  ? 

Ah !  Gentlemen,  I  see  a  new  law  emerging  here,  the 
law  0^  fecundity. 

1  hear  it  said  that  there  are  races  that  increase,  and 
others  that  decrease,  or  at  least  remain  stationary.  I 
hear  this  said  in  the  most  eloquent  of  all  languages  in 
the  way  of  demonstration,  the  language  of  statistics; 
and  it  is  a  most  heart-moving  language  on  this  point, 
because  the  race  that  is  decreasing  is  said  to  be  our 
own — it  is  said  to  be  France.  I  am  not  one  of  those 
who  would  estimate  the  strength  of  a  country  by  the 
weakness  of  its  neighbors :  this  is  an  old  heathen  notion 
which  all  Christian  statesmen  must  repudiate.  But  I 
do  not  wish  my  country  to  sink  while  others  rise.  I  do 
wish  that  in  time  of  peace,  as  she  stands  looking  at  her 
wealth-producing  plough,  France  might  not  have  far  to 
seek  for  hands  to  grasp  it  and  to  spread  fertility  through 
all  her  fields.  I  do  wish  that  in  that  terrible  and  glori- 
ous hour  when  war  breaks  out,  without  quitting  the 
plough,  without  suffering  those  peaceful  wounds  upon  her 
sides  to  close,  that  flow  with  life  and  abundance,  France 
might  find  other  hands  to  seize  her  valiant  sword,  and 
wield  it  right  bravely  and  proudly  to  strike  down  her 

enemies.    I  do  wish,  when  I  look  abroad of  Germany 

I  shall  say  no  more,  I  have  alreadv  spoken  of  it;  neither 


120  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

shall  I  speak  of  Russia,  which  is  in  a  fair  way  to  con- 
quer Northern  Asia,  and  which  will  soon,  perhaps,  rule 
China,  to  the  furthest  East;  but  on  the  other  side  of 
the  Channel,  I  see  the  noble  Anglo-Saxon  race,  one  of 
the  noblest  in  the  world,  and  when  I  look  at  it  I  do 
wish  not  to  be  compelled  to  blush.  I  do  not  count  its 
provinces  and  its  colonies,  I  do  not  stop  for  the  details; 
but  a  vast  empire  in  the  Indies,  a  flourishing  and 
gigantic  republic  in  the  United  States,  and  a  neAV  con- 
tinent emerging  from  mid-ocean,  Australia,  which  is 
soon  to  rival  Europe  and  America !  Pardon  me,  0  my 
country !  forgive  one  who  loves  you  well  for  addressing 
you  with  such  respectful  but  most  painful  frankness ! 
but  I  do  wish  that  I  need  not  hear  this  reproach,  with- 
out having  one  word  to  utter  in  reply  :  "And  you,  sons 
of  France,  there  are  not  enough  of  you  to  colonize  and 
people  Algeria !" 

Gentlemen,  in  this  pulpit,  which  is  Cod's  pulpit,  and 
before  this  audience,  so  well  fitted  to  inspire  one  with  the 
truth,  and  then  to  give  ear  to  it,  I  shall  not  spare  all  my 
resources  of  sincerity.  It  is  not  pleasant  to  reflect  indi- 
rectly upon  men  whose  talents  and  convictions  I  respect, 
even  in  the  midst  of  their  monstrous  errors  ;  but  I  am 
bound  to  hold  up  to  view  certain  doctrines  that  have 
something  to  do  with  a  state  of  things  that  has  already 
become  inveterate.  Now  this  is  the  doctrine  oi positiv- 
ism, or  at  least  of  one  of  the  most  eminent  representatives 
of  that  school.  In  a  remarkable  book  which  I  glanced 
over  yesterday  on  your  account,  this  author  proposes  as 
the  supreme  remedy  for  the  sufferings  of  the  people,  and 
especially  for  the  decline  in  wages,  "  the  limitation  of 
the  size  of  families  in  the  laboring  classes."*  I  quote 
word  for  word,  and  it  is  not  an  accidental  page,  a  chance 

*  John  Stuart  Mill,  "  Principles  of  Political  Economy.'"    Vol.  I. 


FATHERHOOD.  121 

phrase;  it  is  an  idea  repeatedly  expressed  in  this  work, 
and  which  pervades  it  all,  as  the  translator  himself  ac- 
knowledges. This  author  "  expects  little  improvement 
in  morality,  until  the  producing  large  families  is  regarded 
with  the  same  feelings  as  drunkenness,  or  any  other  phy- 
sical excess."*  He  comforts  himself,  however,  with  the 
hope  that  the  time  is  approaching  when  "  we  shall  be 
able  to  convert  the  moral  obligation,"  not  to  have  too 
many  children,  "  into  a  legal  one,"  and  when  the  law  will 
"  end  by  enforcing"  this  obligation  upon  "  the  recalci- 
trant minority."!  This  is  the  sort  of  stuff  that  is  called, 
now-a-days,  science,  progress,  the  future  !  And  yet  there 
are  those  who  Avould  call  me  to  account  for  having  spoken 
of  the  approach  of  Euroj)ean  barbarism,  and  for  having 
given  warning  of  the  danger  of  such  a  despotism  as  the 
human  race  has  never  known ! 

[But  fatherhood  ought  to  obey  not  alone  the  law  of  fecundity  ; 
it  should  follow  one  law  more — the  laAV  of  morality.  Father  Hy- 
acinthe  developed  this  cardinal  law.  He  showed  the  resemblance 
of  every  father  of  a  family  to  Abraham,  when  God  showed  him  in 
the  stars  of  heaven  the  symbol  of  his  race :  it  was  not  only  his 
sons  who  are  to  go  forth  from  him,  nor  his  sons'  sons,  but,  in  the 
course  of  centuries,  whole  nations.:}:  Now  these  generations  are, 
so  to  speak,  contained  in  him,  living  one  and  the  same  life  with 
him ;  and,  according  to  the  energetic  language  of  the  Scriptures, 
he  carries  them  already  in  his  loins.§  In  this  way  it  is,  that  by 
the  good  or  evil  use  which  a  man  makes  of  his  liberty,  by  the 
wounds  which,  in  his  own  person,  he  inflicts  upon  human  nature, 
or  by  the  respect  with  which  he  surrounds  it,  a  single  man  can 
exert  an  influence  either  happy  or  fatal,  salutary  or  corrupting, 
upon  countless  generations.  Original  sin  cannot  otherwise  be 
explained ;  it  is  a  consequence  of  the  exceptional  dependence  of 
all  men  upon  him  in  whom  fatherhood  was  impersonated  in  all 
its  plenitude  and  its  energy.      The  races  peculiarly  cursed,  ofj 

*  Ibid,  pape  459,  note.  t  Ibid,  pa^e  464. 

X  Gen.  xvii.  4.  §  Heb.  vii.  10. 


122  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

"vvliich  the  Scripture  tells  us,  liave  this  origin  only :  in  cursing 
the  son  of  Ham,  Noah  simply  expressed  the  law  by  which  the 
depravity  of  the  father  passes  to  the  children. — It  is  not  invaria- 
ble :  there  are  on  the  one  hand  the  fatalities  of  nature,  on  the 
other  the  liberty  of  the  individual,  which  may  free  the  son, 
whether  for  good  or  evil,  from  the  influence  of  the  parent.  But 
with  these  exceptions,  the  law  none  the  less  remains  such  as  ex- 
perience and  common  sense  have  proved  it  to  be — "  like  father, 
like  son ;" — such  as  the  Holy  Book  has  expressed  it,  in  showing 
the  Lord  as  visiting  the  sins  of  the  fathers  upon  the  third  and 
fourth  generation,  and  remembering  mercy  to  the  thousandth. — 
It  depends,  then,  at  the  last  resort,  upon  fatherhood  to  raise  or 
lower  the  physical  and  moral  level  of  humanity,] 

I  hear  it  said  by  sophistical  science,  that  in  an  ap- 
proaching cataclysm  of  the  globe  there  i>s  to  rise  a  new 
race  superior  to  our  own,  just  as  we  ourselves  arose  in 
the  last  of  the  transformations  of  the  earth.  We  should 
be  destined,  then,  to  be  to  this  race  of  the  future  what 
the  brute  races  are  now  to  us ;  but  science  consoles  it- 
self for  this  in  its  pantheistic  indifference.  Gentlemen, 
there  is  a  truth  beneath  these  dismal  fantasies ; — it  is, 
that  it  depends  upon  fathers,  not  to  create  a  race  supe- 
rior to  man — man  is  the  last  expression  of  creative  wis- 
dom— but  to  raise  the  human  race  above  its  present 
position.  It  depends  on  them,  first  by  fatherhood,  and 
then  by  education,  to  elevate,  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration, the  physical  and  moral  level  of  our  great  and 
progressive  humankind ;  as  it  depends  upon  them  also 
to  depress,  to  impoverish,  to  corrupt  it  in  everything — in 
blood,  in  ideas, in  morals!  Humanity  is  in  their  power; 
they  may,  at  their  pleasure,  raise  it  up  to  God,  or  depress 
it  to  a  level  with  the  brutes. 

[In  conclusion,  the  speaker  insisted  upon  the  religious  character 
of  paternity.] 


FATHERHOOD.  123 

And  yet  it  is  not  glory  enough  for  Fatherhood  to  add 
something  to  human  nature  day  by  day ;  it  must  also,  if 
I  may  venture  to  say  it,  add  somewhat  to  the  divine 
nature.  Doubtless,  God  is  perfect  and  unchangeable  in 
himself;  but  he  needs  to  grow  in  us.  He  has  bidden 
us,  through  Christianity,  to  be  "partakers  of  his  own 
nature,"*  and  his  desire  is  to  impart  that  nature  ever 
more  and  more  to  the  bosom  of  humanity.  Such  is  the 
sublime  goal  of  Christian  fatherhood.  It  prepares  new 
subjects  for  that  divine  "adoption  of  sons"  of  which  the 
evangelist  St.  John  has  said:  "As  many  as.  received 
him,  to  them  gave  he  power  to  become  the,  sons  of  God, 
even  to  them  that  believe  on  his  name,  which  were  born 
not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will 
of  man,  but  of  God."f  Christian  fatherhood  brings 
forth  children  for  baptism,  for  the  holy  supper,  for  all 
the  real  and  secret  marvels  of  grace,  for  all  the  w^onder- 
ful  intercourse  of  the  personal  and  living  God  with 
man. 

In  their  ardent  longing  for  the  Messiah,  the  Jews 
watched  unceasingly  for  his  appearance  among  the  chil- 
dren of  their  fruitful  marriages;  every  faithful  father 
hoped  that  some  day,  while  embracing  one  of  these 
sweet  creatures,  lost  in  joy  and  adoration,  he  should 
recognize  beneath  the  features  of  his  child  the  ambas- 
sador of  Heaven.  The  dream  of  the  Hebrew  family  is 
the  reality  of  the  Christian  family.  Christian  father, 
put  back  those  fair  locks,  look  at  that  pure  forehead 
from  which  the  water  of  holy  baptism  has  hardly  dried 
away,  look  at  that  clear  and  limpid  eye,  wherein  is  mir- 
rored the  blue  of  heaven,  and  with  it,  the  smile  of  God ! 
This  child,  so  lovely  and  so  innocent,  this  angel  that 
comes  to  you  from  heaven  and  leads  you  back  thither,  is 

♦  2  Peter,  i.  4.  t  John,  i.  12, 13. 


124  DISCOUESES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

tlie  Messiah.  The  redemption  o^  Christ  is  upon  him, 
the  grace  and  the  virtues  of  Christ  dwell  within  the 
soul,  and  the  Christ  himself  lives  again  in  your  son  !"* 

Fatherhood,  then,  is  an  eminently  religious  thing. 
Like  all  that  is  truly  great,  it  pertains  to  God,  and  par- 
takes of  him.  It  proceeds  from  him,  for  he  is  at  once 
its  origin  and  its  law;  it  returns  to  him,  because  it 
brings  into  existence  not  for  this  human  life  alone,  but 
has  its  final  purpose  in  the  formation  of  a  divine  being. 
How  overwhelming  the  thought !  Once  more  I  utter 
from  my  heart  that  cry  of  wonder  and  of  prayer :  "  I 
bow  my  knees  before  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  from  whom  all  fatherhood  in  heaven  and  earth 
is  named  !"t 

*  See  Gal.  ii.  20 ;  Phil.  i.  21 ;  Eph.  iii.  17.  t  Eph.  iu.  14, 15. 


LECTURE     FIFTH 

December  30,  1866. 


EDUCATION  m  THE   FAMILY. 

GEis'TLEMEX :  We  now  understand  fatherhood.  It  has 
appeared  to  us  as  a  very  simple  thing,  seated  by  every 
fireside  in  the  world ;  and  at  the  same  time  as  a  yery 
grand  thing,  superior,  in  a  sense,  to  all  royalties,  asso- 
ciated with  all  priesthoods,  receiving  directly  from  God 
this  wonderful  power  of  vanquishing  death  by  repro- 
ducing the  individual,  and  enlarging  the  creation  by 
propagating  the  kind. 

A  reproduction  of  the  individual  in  his  Mocd,  in  his 
sotd  (in  that  orthodox  sense  in  which  I  have  explained 
it),  and  finally,  in  his  works,  paternity  creates  for  man 
a  primary  immortality  upon  the  earth,  that  immortality 
of  race  w^hich  the  divine  promise  has-  never  separated 
from  the  immortality  of  the  person,  and  of  w^hich  we 
have  an  illustrious  example  in  the  posterity  of  the  holy 
patriarchs,  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob.  Contemporary 
rationalism  is  right  in  asserting  this  immortality  of  the 
present  life;  but  it  is  wrong,  while  asserting  this,  in 
denying  the  immortality  of  the  life  to  come. 

It  is  in  the  right,  also,  when  with  us  it  honors  in  pa- 
ternity the  noble  instrument  of  the  propagation  of  our 
kind,  in  the  first  place,  under  that  grand  linmanitarian 


126  DISCOUBSES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

form,  whicli  our  age  seems  to  be  called,  more  than  its 
predecessors,  to  know,  to  love,  to  serve;  and  secondly, 
in  those  more  particular  and  determinate  forms  which 
are  called  races  and  nations.  But  it  ought  better  to 
understand  and  better  to  practise  those  two  holy  laws 
of  fecundity  and  morality  which  expand  mankind  and 
the  nations  in  point  of  number,  at  the  same  time  that 
they  elevate  and  ennoble  them  by  virtue. 

It  should,  above  all,  recognize  that  human  fatherhood 
finds  its  end,  as  its  origin,  in  God  himself,  seeing  that  it 
has  for  its  supreme  mission  to  prepare  new  subjects 
of  participation  in  the  divine  life  in  the  bosom  of 
Christianity.  Arrived  at  this  climax,  we  have  learned. 
Gentlemen,  to  honor  the  name  of  father  as  that  august 
title  for  the  glory  of  which  one  might  almost  say  that 
God  and  man  are  rival  claimants. 

Well,  then,  great  as  it  is  in  its  first  act,  which  is  gen- 
eration,  fatherhood  is  greater  still  in  its  second  act, 
which  is  education,  that  gradual  and  glorious  moral 
generation. 

[It  is  upon  this  subject  of  education  in  the  family  that  Father 
Hyacinthe  proposes  now  to  speak.  He  will  consider  successively 
the  agents  and  the  laics  of  education.] 

Part  First. — Of  the  Agents  of  Education. 

1.  [At  the  outset,  by  way  of  preliminary,  he  proceeds  to  define 
education,  and  determine  its  precise  object.] 

The  deeper  meaning  of  words  is  generally  found  in 
their  etymology.  According  to  the  Latin  root,  education 
means  a  drawhig-out,  from  the  Latin  educere.  Educa- 
tion is  not,  then,  the  creation  of  life,  but  the  develop- 
ment of  the  life  already  created.  To  'bring  up  is  another 
word  which  carries  a  similar  idea — to  convey  from  a 


EDUCATION   IN  THE   FAMILY.  127 

lower  to  a  higher  plane ;  it  is  to  carry  a  being  from  the 
state  in  which  he  exists  now  to  a  state  in  which  he  does 
not  yet  exist.  Education  supposes,  on  the  part  of  God, 
creation — on  the  part  of  man,  fatherhood ;  and  it  rests 
upon  another  law,  universal  in  this  world,  the  law  of 
the  germ. 

In  Yv^hatever  sphere  I  contemplate  life,  outside  of  the 
bosom  of  God — in  the  animal  as  in  the  vegetable  king- 
dom, in  the  world  of  souls  as  well  as  of  bodies — every- 
where I  find  it  beginning  in  a  germ,  where  it  lies  latent, 
and  as  if  wrap]")ed,  up  in  a  mysterious  sleep.  And,  as  I 
am  speaking  of  man,  there  are  in  him  two  germs,  folded 
one  within  the  other — the  soul  and  the  body.  The  body 
is  formed  with  all  its  organs ;  all  its  functions  are  there 
in  a  rudimentary  state  ;  and  yet  it  is  obvious  that  thus 
far  it  is  nothing  more  than  a  marvellous  epitome  of 
man.  The  soul  is  constituted  with  all  its  faculties,  and 
even  with  the  direct  and  involuntary  exercise  of  them. 
To  speak  only  of  the  understanding,  which  is  the  root 
of  all,  it  bears  already  within  itself  one  pre-existent 
idea,  the  most  simple  and  the  most  fruitful  of  all  ideas, 
the  idea  of  being,  a  dawning  light,  which  by  and  by 
shall  illuminate  everything,  but  which  now  falls  upon 
no  definite  object,  and  in  which  the  gaze  of  the  infant 
is  lost  without  consciousness  either  of  it  or  of  itself. 

JSTov/,  it  is  when  subjected  to  this  educational  force, 
that  the  germ  begins  to  open,  unfold,  and  to  exhibit 
outwardly,  by  their  motion  and  outburst,  the  elements 
infolded  in  its  bosom.  The  educational  force,  for  the 
plant,  is  the  soil  in  which  it  is  rooted,  the  sunbeams  and 
the  dew-drops  ;  for  man,  it  is  a  cause  as  personal  as  him- 
self. Upon  this  education,  so  different  from  all  others, 
the  seal  of  individuality  is  set,  with  an  unparalleled 
dignity.     Ecason  and  liberty  are  essential  to  its  min- 


/ 

128  DISCOUBSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

isters ;  and  for  its  subjects,  passive  obedience  is  not  suf- 
ficient, we  must  haye  besides  an  intelligent  and  free 
response.  Education  is  not  a  thing  imposed;  it  is  a 
free  gift,  freely  accepted ;  it  is  to-day  from  father  to  son, 
what  it  was  originally  from  God  to  man — a  work  of  rev- 
erence :  "with  great  reverence  thou  dealest  toward  us."* 

[Education  in  general,  then,  is  tlie  development  of  a,  pre-existent 
germ;  and  the  education  of  man  in  particular  is  the  development 
of  a  p€rso7ial  germ  by  the  action  of  a  free  and  intelligent  agent 
without,  by  the  free  and  intelligent  co-operation  of  the  subject 
within. 

2d.  This  idea  explained.  Father  Hyacinthe  comes  to  the  question 
proposed  in  this  first  part  of  his  discourse — who  are  the  true  and 
legitimate  agents  of  the  work  of  education  ?  It  must  be  observed 
that  this  question  is  answered  by  the  very  idea  of  education, 
which  is  only  the  complement  of  generation.  The  agents  of  edu- 
cation can  only  be  the  authors  of  the  life  itself— the  parents.] 

I  well  understand  that  we  must  recognize  three  forms 
of  human  society.  I  said  so  at  the  commencement  of 
these  studies,  and  I  still  purpose  to  explain,  in  turn, 
their  rights  and  their  dignities.  There  is  domestic  society^ 
as  we  have  seen ;  but  there  is,  besides,  civil  society  and 
religions  society.  This  child  belongs  to  the  family,  but 
he  also  belongs  to  his  country,  which  is  temporal,  and  to 
the  Church,  which  is  eternal.  Thus  I  am  very  far  from 
denying  the  necessary  and  legitimate  intervention  of 
Church  and  State  in  his  education.  I  am  not  of  the 
mind  of  those  who  say,  pretending  to  speak  in  the  name 
of  Catholicism,  "  The  State  is  a  policeman  f  and  I  am 
not  of  their  mind  who  say,  in  the  name  of  rationalism, 
"  The  State  is  an  insurance  company."  The  State  is 
neither  a  policeman  nor  an  insurance  company,  but  the 

*   Wisdom,  xii.  18. 


EDUCATION   IN   THE  FA3IILY.  129 

highest  organ  of  civil  society,  in  the  moral  as  Avell  as  the 
material  system.  It  has,  then,  a  power  over  the  things 
of  the  soul,  in  relation  to  those  matters  which  do  not 
pertain  to  the  sphere  of  the  supernatural ;  and  the  most 
sacred  of  its  rights,  as  of  its  duties,  is  to  watch  over  the 
education  of  youth.  As  to  the  Church,  I  should  not  be 
its  minister,  if  I  had  forgotten  the  words  of  Jesus  Christ 
to  his  apostles :  "  Go  ye,  therefore,  and  teach  all  nations."* 
Depositary  of  the  religious  instruction,  and,  by  an  inev- 
itable consequence,  of  the  moral  instruction,  which  are 
the  salvation  of  families  and  empires  as  well  as  of  the  in- 
dividual, the  Church  is,  by  the  nature  of  things,  the 
great  instructress  of  the  generations  of  man.  I  fully 
recognize,  then,  under  different  titles,  and  in  different 
degrees,  the  authority  of  the  Church  and  of  the  State, 
in  education ;  but  I  nevertheless  vindicate  the  prioiHti/,^^ 
and  in  a  sense  the  siqjeriority  of  the  family;  I  assert)/ 
anew,  that  the  father  and  mother  are,  by  natural  and  by  \ 
divine  right,  the  proper  educators  of  the  children  whom 
heaven  and  their  love  have  given  them. 

[The  father  and  the  mother  are  the  agents  of  education.  They 
fill  each  a  separate  function,  and  yet  they  carry  on  the  work  in 
caramon.  Father  Hyacintlie  remarks  that  in  the  first  place  the 
father  has  the  supreme  authority  in  all  domestic  education.  It 
belongs  to  him  of  right,  as  the  head  of  the  family.  This  supreme 
authority  is  delegated  to  the  mother,  but  its  source  and  royal  seat 
is  always  in  the  father ;  for,  as  it  has  been  already  said,  "  the  man  is 
the  head  of  the  woman."  As  for  the  more  special  share  of  the 
husband  and  wife  in  this  complex  work,  it  is  determined  by  the 
same  principles  which  settle  the  harmony  of  the  conjugal  rela- 
tion :  man  is  especially  the  representative  of  reason,  woman  of  the 
affections.] 

I  return.  Gentlemen,  to  the  premises  which  I  have  laid 
iown  on  the  subject  of  love.    I  said,  in  speaking  of  con- 

*  Matt,  xxviii.  19. 
6* 


) 


130  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

jugal  love,  of  rational,  personal,  and  Christian  loye — 
the  only  kind  of  which  I  spoke — that  it  presupposes  an 
intimate  harmony  between  the  two  halves  of  hmnan  na- 
ture :  the  one,  the  head  which  thinks  and  governs  ;  the 
other,  the  heart  which  loves  and  inspires.  That  which 
is  necessary,  then,  in  the  love  of  husband  and  wife,  is 
necessary  in  the  education  of  children — we  must  have 
the  presence  and  the  combination  of  these  two  powers. 
The  man,  representative  of  sovereign  reason,  to  utter 
those  lofty  teachings  of  intelligence  and  faith,  of  which 
the  woman  shall  become  the  interpreter;  to  inculcate 
those  rules  to  which  all  owe  obedience,  not  merely 
the  children,  but  the  wife  herself;  to  punish  when  pun- 
ishment is  necessary,  and  "  to  drive  foolishness  from  the 
heart  of  his  child  by  the  rod  of  correction."*  But  the 
woman,  the  wife,  the  mother,  has  a  function  which  is 
the  complement  of  the  first,  and  which  surpasses  it  in 
gentleness,  often  in  efficacy — the  function  of  imparting 
inspirations,  and  those  tendernesses  which  enfeeble  not, 
but  rather  strengthen ; — that  office  of  the  heart  which 
pours  itself  into  the  heart,  and  which,  by  a  sublime  re- 
action, develops  the  reason  on  the  one  hand,  while  it 
strengthens  the  conscience  on  the  other ! 

To  form  a  man,  we  must  have  these  two  forces,  not 
isolated,  but  associated  in  a  commo7i  action.  And  this, 
Gentlemen,  allow  me  to  say  it  in  passing,  is  one  of  the 
strongest  arguments  against  the  sophistry  of  divorce. 
Ah !  love,  of  itself,  can  triumph  over  divorce ;  but  if  it 
should  fail  of  its  influence  over  hearts  that  had  lost 
their  sweetness  or  their  tone,  I  should  aj^peal  to  parent- 
age,— I  should  appeal  to  its  work,  loft  such  a  hopeless 
abortion,  if  the  parents  separate  before  they  have  com- 
pleted it.     Ah !  if  you  can  no  longer  love  each  other 

*  Proverbs,  xxii.  13. 


EDUCATION   IN   THE   FAMILY.  131 

for  each  other's  sake,  love  at  least  for  the  sake  of  your 
child !  0  father's  reason,  turn  not  away  from  the  mother's 
heart !  0  heart  of  mother,  do  not  revolt  against  the 
father's  reason !  but  like  the  two  halves  of  a  single  shield 
joined  into  one  complete  and  necessary  defence,  sur- 
round this  cradle  and  protect  it. 

[After  these  general  considerations  on  the  separate  work  of 
the  parents,  the  preacher  entered  into  certain  details  to  establish 
the  special  importance  of  the  maternal  education.] 

I  said  a  great  deal  about  the  father,  last  Sunday :  I 
did  so  with  a  purpose.  I  fear  that  sometimes,  in  the 
Christian  pulpit,  the  part  of  the  father  is  too  much 
sacrificed  to  that  of  the  mother.  But  now  I  need  to 
render  to  the  mother  the  homage  which  is  due  to  her. 
In  this  education  of  the  child,  which  commences  with 
birth,  or  rather  with  conception,  the  influence  of  the 
mother  is  the  first  in  order  of  time,  the  most  intimate 
in  the  order  of  depth  and  penetration.  The  old  Ara- 
bian prophet  was  right  when  he  said,  "Man  that  is 
born  of  a  woman."*  We  have  not  thought  of  this 
enougli :  the  most  decisive  education  of  man,  for  body 
and  for  soul,  is  given  in  the  cradle.  Now  the  real 
cradle  of  man  is  the  womb  and  the  arms  of  the  mother. 
The  long  repose  of  nine  months,  that  chaste  and  close 
embrace,  where  the  child  is  one  flesh  with  its  mother, 
and  I  might  almost  say,  one  soul!  And  when  it  is 
torn  from  this  first  caress,  it  is  to  find  others,  no  less 
close  and  fruitful,  in  the  arms  which  await  it !  "  What, 
my  son !"  cries  the  mother,  "  what,  the  son  of  my 
womb !  and  what,  the  son  of  my  vows !"  \  Leave  the 
infant  in  its  mother's  arms !    Who  can  fill  the  place  of 

*  Job,  xiv.  1.  t  Prov.  xxxi.  2, 


132  DISCOUESES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

the  mother  with  the  child,  of  the  dearly  loyiiig  with  the 
dearly  beloved  ? 

Kecall  that  charming  t3q3e  of  Christian  art,  that  from 
the  Catacombs  to  the  Eenaissance  is  so  often  modified, 
but  which  is  never  changed — that  type  of  the  Virgin 
Mother,  the  pure  and  tender  mother  carrying  in  her 
arms  the  Divine  Child !  Ah !  I  know  that  it  is  a 
reality ;  I  know  that  there  was  at  Nazareth  a  daughter 
of  royal  stock,  a  mechanic's  wife,  ever  virgin,  yet  the 
mother  of  Jesus  Christ;  but  I  know  also  that  this 
woman  has  become,  in  the  glory  of  Christianity,  the 
supreme  type  of  motheiliood !  0  Christian  mother ! — 
or,  rather,  whoever  thou  art,  daughter  of  humanity, 
created  by  the  Almighty,  redeemed  by  Christ — 0  human 
mother,  if  only  thou  have  a  mother's  heart  and  sympa- 
thies, look  at  the  woman  of  our  sculpture  and  our 
painting,  the  mysterious  and  radiant  image  of  our 
cathedrals !  it  is  thy  sister,  thy  model,  and  thy  law — it 
is  thyself,  if  thou  canst  understand  it!  Be  thou  the 
stem  rising  from  the  earth,  and  never  separating  from  its 
flower,  so  full  of  tender  beauty  and  sweet  perfume ;  be 
the  blooming  "  branch  that  groweth  out  of  his  root."* 
Be  the  mother  that  holds  her  infant,  night  and  day, 
cradled  in  the  caresses  of  her  arms — cradled  in  her  own 
purity  and  love.  Like  her,  nourish  it  on  thine  own 
substance ;  it  is  God  who  has  filled  thy  breast ;  ^ihere  de 
ccelo  j9/e?20,  as  the  Church  sings.  Lavish  upon  it  that 
divine  food,  the  best  of  all  for  its  physical  and  its  moral 
life.  This  substance  is  living  with  the  life  of  thy  own 
soul,  which  penetrates  and  quickens  it;  with  every 
wave  of  this  sweet  draught,  with  every  gush  of  this 
chaste  intoxication,  something  of  thy  heart  and  thy 
though  t§  is  passing  into  thy  son ! 

*  Isaiah,  xi.  1. 


EDUCATION   IN   THE   FAMILY.  133 

It  is,  then,  in  the  arms  and  fi'om  the  heart  of  its 
mother  that  the  chiki  receives  its  primary  education. 
It  is  there  that  it  receives  those  first  cares  for  the  body, 
which  are  at  the  same  time  the  first  things  to  waken 
and  stir  the  heart.  The  infant  is  sensible  only  of  that 
which  touches  its  body ;  it  is  upon  that  that  its  entire 
attention  is  concentrated ;  consequently,  the  mother  her- 
self should  hold  this  body,  this  little  sacred  body,  in 
her  arms,  not  only  because  she  has  for  the  task  inimi- 
table hands,  hands  instinct  with  intelligence  and  deli- 
cacy,* such  as  other  men  and  women  have  not,  but  also 
because  in  touching  the  body  she  shall  reach  the  heart, 
and  aAvaken  its  life  in  a  smile.  0  Gentlemen,  this  is 
not  poetry;  or,  if  it  be  poetry,  it  springs  from  the  very 
bosom  of  fact.  What,  then,  is  the  meaning  of  a  child's 
smile  ?  Look  at  the  animal,  and  on  its  inert  lips  and 
in  its  eye,  deep  as  it  often  is  when  nature  is  dreaming 
there,  you  will  never  catch  a  smile.  The  smile  is  the 
first  gleam  of  intelligence,  the  dawning  twilight  of 
reason  and  affection :  that  is  the  reason  why  it  belongs 
only  to  man.  So  long  as  no  distinct  thought  has  lighted 
up  the  baby's  mind,  it  does  not  smile.  But,  some  day, 
among  the  chaos  of  forms  that  flit  before  the  dim  gaze 
of  its  bodily  eye,  and  the  still  more  uncertain  gaze  of 
its  mental  eye,  one  form  is  perceived  more  distinctly 
defined;  the  child  has  seen  its  mother,  the  first  indi- 
viduality that  has  been  revealed  to  it,  the  first  thought 
which  has  enlightened  its  mind,  the  first  affection  which 
has  throbbed  in  its  heart.  The  human  world  opens 
before  it,  the  clouds  of  native  ignorance  are  riven  asun- 
der, and  like  a  rainbow,  his  radiant  smile  lights  up  his 
cradle. 

It  is  at  the  age  of  six  weeks  that  the  child  first  smiles 

*  Pb.  Ixxviii.  72.    "  In  intellectibus  maiiiiuin  euarum."— Tw/^ai*. 


134  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

upon  its  mother ;  it  is  not  till  after  a  year  that  it  speaks 
its  first  -word — an  event  in  the  domestic  history  which 
always  makes  a  family-festival,  and  which  really  marks 
an  important  epoch  of  life.  The  smile  marks  the  be- 
ginning of  thought  in  the  child ;  but  this  thought  is 
of  an  mferior  order,  it  cannot  abstract  itself  from  the 
external  objects  with  which  it  is  connected,  and  come 
back  freely  upon  itself,  and  hold  self-consciousness  and 
self-control.  To  deliver  it  from  this  tyranny  of  indi- 
vidual forms  which  fix  and  absorb  it,  it  must  have  a 
seusible  sign — for  human  thought  cannot  separate  itself 
completely  from  the  senses, — a  sensible,  but  arbitrary 
sign  upon  which  it  may  depend  in  its  abstraction.  This 
sign  is  speech ;  speech,  which  is  not  only  the  expression, 
but  the  liberator  of  thought.  The  father  of  the  human 
race  received  it  from  God,  and  every  son  of  Adam  re- 
ceives it  from  his  mother.  As  the  mother's  gaze  has 
revealed  to  him  the  world  of  visible  realities,  even  so 
it  is  the  mother's  tongue  which  opens  to  him  the  world 
of  invisible  realities,  and  the  most  august  of  all,  God ! 
It  is  a  tradition  of  Christian  firesides,  that  the  first  in- 
telligent word  addressed  by  the  mother  to  her  child 
should  be  this  great  name  of  God.  Sublime  preroga- 
tive, which  elevates  the  priesthood  of  the  mother,  in 
this,  at  least,  above  that  of  the  father,  even  above  our 
own.  0  lips  of  w^oman,  ye  beguiled  us  in  Adam,  and 
behold  how  God  has  counted  you  worthy  to  teach  us  his 
truth,  and  to  reveal  to  us  his  nature  I 

Ah  I  I  cannot  but  remember  that  prophecy  of  Genesis, 
when  the  old  serpent  of  error  and  evil  deemed  himself 
the  conqueror  of  our  race  forever.  The  Lord  God  said 
unto  him :  "  On  thy  belly  shalt  thou  go,  and  dust  shalt 
thou  eat  all  the  days  of  thy  life :  and  I  will  put  enmity 
between  thee  and  the  w^oman,  and  between  thy  seed  and 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  FAMILY.  135 

her   seed ;    she  shall  bruise  thy  head,  and  thou  shalt 
bruise  her  heel."  * 

I  do  not  wish  to  hurt  any  one's  feelings,  but  I  must 
speak  the  truth ;  those  doctrines,  those  craAvling  doc- 
trines that  cannot  rise  from  the  ground,  but  which 
make  it  their  business  to  lie  in  ambush  for  men's  heels — 
for  all  these  infirmities  of  ours  which  bind  us  in  thought 
or  feeling  to  material  things — materialist,  skeptical, 
atheist  doctrines,  which  sometimes  lift  their  heads  a  mo- 
ment, but  can  never  do  more  than  crawl,  even  while 
they  are  giving  such  a  magnificent  hiss — I  tell  them  : 
You  appeal  to  science  ;  but  science  does  not  know  you, 
and  the  real  struggle  is  not  between  her  and  you!  Take 
care,  you  have  a  more  dangerous  enemy  than  she  can 
be:  ^^  I  will  put  enmity  hei  ween  thee  and  the  tvomanT 
Your  enemy  is  the  woman,  with  that  innate  tenderness 
and  purity  which  makes  mental  corruption  as  repug- 
nant to  her  as  physical ;  the  woman,  with  that  super- 
natural power  with  which  Christianity  has  endued  her! 
Between  us  and  you,  there  stands  the  woman !  Between 
your  sophistries  and  our  reason,  there  is  our  mother ! 
After  twenty,  thirty  years,  and  more,  wx  still  keep 
within  our  souls  the  echo  of  her  words  and  the  impress 
of  her  embraces !  The  warmth  of  her  caresses  is  still 
glowing;  the  sting  which  her  lips  have  made  still  bleeds ; 
and  we  carry  in  that  mother's  kiss — that  divine  saluta- 
tion— a  permanent  and  infallible  revelation  of  all  that 
is  highest  in  heaven,  of  all  that  is  deepest  in  the  soul ! 
Xo,  until  you  have  closed  the  lips  of  the  Christian 
mother,  you  have  not  succeeded  in  extinguishing  the 
Kingdom  of  God  upon  the  earth ! 

*  Genesis,  iii.  14, 15.    (See  the  Eoman  Catholic  versions.) 


136  DISCOURSES   OF   FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

Part  Second. — The  Laws  of  Education. 

[After  observing  that  education  is  not  left  to  the  caprice  of  pa- 
rents, but  should  be  carried  on  according  to  those  higher  laws 
which  spring  from  the  very  nature  of  things,  Father  Hyacinthe 
reduces  these  laws  to  three  principal  ones.  The  first  relates  to 
the  surroundings  in  the  midst  of  which  our  life  is  developed ;  the 
second,  to  its  starting-point ;  the  third,  to  its  point  of  destination. 
The  direction  given  to  education  should  be  in  conformity  to  the 
actual  facts  concerning  these  three  principal  elements  of  human 
existence.] 

First  Law. — True  education  is  tliat  ivhich  is  intended 
to  prepare  man  for  actual  life. 

I  do  not  know,  Gentlemen,  if  there  exists  an  error 
more  common,  and  at  the  same  time  more  fatal  to  the 
happiness  of  the  individual  and  the  progress  of  the  race, 
than  that  which  bears  upon  the  real  elements  and  the 
practical  direction  of  human  life.  The  father  wiio  does 
not  desire  to  bring  up  his  children  to  barren  reyeries  and 
cruel  disappointments,  will  carefully  avoid  this  error. 

The  two  principal  spheres  of  our  existence,  are  our 
family  and  our  worJc. 

It  is  for  family  life,  above  all,  that  man  is  to  be  fitted : 
for  its  interests,  which  are  to  be  the  great  object  of  his 
solicitude,  and  for  its  virtues,  which  are  the  great  object  of 
his  aspiration  ;  for  its  affections  and  its  griefs,  which  will 
always  be  the  supreme  delight  and  the  supreme  bitter- 
ness of  the  human  heart — that  double  cup  of  which  I 
have  spoken,  full  of  joys  and  full  of  tears ;  but  whose 
joys  have  something  of  grave  and  holy,  and  whose  tears, 
however  bitter  they  may  be,  do  yet  borrow  something  of 
the  sweetness  of  the  joys.  Public  life  itself  is  subordi- 
nate to  private  life.  What  is  a  country,  but  an  associa- 
tion of  homes  ?  What  is  public  life  itself,  if  not  the  re- 
sultant of  all  the  forces  which  act  in  all  the  homes  ?   The 


EDUCATION  IN   THE  FAMILY.  137 

existence  and  prosperity  of  nations  consists  entirely  in 
the  existence  and  prosperity  of  its  homes ;  and  this  is 
why  the  two  fundamental  laws  of  civil  society  have  al- 
ways been  the  law  of  property  and  the  law  of  marriage. 

After  education  for  the  family,  nothing  is  more  im- 
portant than  education  for  worh,  that  other  substantial 
and  constituent  form  of  our  existence.  The  child  may 
choose  between  mental  and  manual  labor,  and  in  each 
of  these  great  divisions  will  find  many  varieties  answer- 
ing to  all  individual  aptitudes  as  well  as  to  all  social 
needs ;  but  his  choice  once  made,  he  must  apply  him- 
self with  love  and  constancy,  and  remember  that  work  is 
not  only  a  means,  but,  in  a  very  true  and  noble  sense,  an 
end.  The  work  for  which  men,  taken  generally,  are  to  be 
fitted,  is  manual — agriculture,  mechanic  art,  commerce ; 
and  it  is  one  of  the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  mod- 
ern progress,  that  it  elevates  in  importance  and  dignity 
these  common  occupations,  which  Christianity  has  al- 
ways honored,  but  which  the  prejudices  of  the  world 
have  too  often  sacrificed  to  the  liberal  professions. 
These  great  things,  sciences,  letters,  arts,  politics,  with 
wars  and  treaties  of  peace,  have  not,  however,  the  ex- 
clusive or  even  the  primary  importance  that  has  too 
often  been  given  them  in  our  education.  All  this 
movement  of  human  things  is  more  on  their  surface  than 
in  their  substance.  It  is  limited  in  its  nature,  often  very 
brilliant,  but  often,  also,  very  corrupt;  and  it  is  not,  I 
venture  to  say,  the  true  movement  of  humanity.  The 
history  of  our  race,  as  it  is  to  be  written  in  the  future, 
will  be,  more  than  anything  else,  the  history  of  these 
two  elements  of  genuine  life,  these  two  foci  of  all  sound 
and  lasting  civilization — the  family  and  the  workshop. 

I  have  named  the  two  main  foci  of  civilization,  which 
is  equivalent  to  naming  the  two  main  schools  of  popular 


138  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

education — the  family,  where  we  are  practically  trained 
for  life,  and  the  tvorJcshop,  where  we  are  practically 
trained  for  work. 

Popular  education  is  deservedly  one  of  the  most  living 
interests  of  our  time ;  and  the  way  which  appears  to 
many  as  the  only  efficacious  way  of  reaching  this  noble 
end,  is  the  creation  of  schools,  properly  so  called,  dis- 
tinct from  the  home  and  the  workshop.  For  my  part, 
I  agree  that  the  importance  of  the  school  had  not  been 
sufficiently  understood  down  to  these  later  days ;  it  is  a 
fruitful  truth  which  it  is  well  to  bring  into  the  light, 
but  which,  nevertheless,  must  not  be  exaggerated. 
Everywhere,  but  above  all,  in  France,  there  is  nothing 
more  to  be  dreaded  than  exaggerated  truths.  Even  in 
the  region  of  the  higher  education,  it  is  not  the  school 
which  gives  thorough  knowledge  of  ideas  and  things, 
experience  of  life,  of  men,  of  facts;  how  much  less, 
then,  can  it  do  so  in  the  more  modest  and  practical 
sphere  of  popular  education  !  That  which  the  child  of 
the  people  wants  of  the  school  more  than  anything  else, 
is  the  actual  mechanical  details  of  reading,  writing,  and 
arithmetic,  and  a  certain  general  culture,  in  v/hich,  some 
day,  I  hope,  no  French  citizen  will  be  wanting.  But  as  for 
that  luxury  of  learning,  reserved  for  an  intellectual  aris- 
tocracy, which  must  not  be  too  much  enlarged  lest  it 
be  too  much  lowered,  the  workman  has  nothing  to  do 
with  it ;  and  as  for  the  more  profound  knowledge  of  his 
own  art,  he  will  prefer  to  obtain  it  by  practice  in  the 
workshop,  rather  than  theoretically  in  the  school.  The 
practice  of  good  workshops  has  frequently  been  in  ad- 
vance of  the  theory  of  the  schools ;  and  this  theory,  more- 
over, remains  barren  and  uncomprehended  until  applied, 
and  sometimes  rectified,  by  the  rude  hands  of  the  work- 
man.    However  important  the  school  may  be,  it  does 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  FAMILY.         139 

not  contain  the  great  solution  of  education  for  the 
masses ;  this  solution  must  be  sought,  first  of  all,  from 
the  family  and  the  workshop.  Give  the  people  uncor- 
rupted  and  well-ordered  workshops — there  are  too  few 
now-a-days;  give  them  back  their  homes — there  are 
none  of  them  left  in  our  great  cities;  and  you  will  have 
done  more  even  than  by  multiplying  our  glorious 
schools !  The  educators  of  real  life  are  the  parents,  in 
that  sanctuary  of  the  family  which  we  call  the  liome ; 
and  the  masters,  the  true  and  worthy  masters,  in  that 
sanctuary  of  labor  called  the  worhsliop. 

Second  Law. — Education  ^inust  not  mistahe  cibout  the 
real  starting-jpoint  of  human  life. 

[The  preacher  here  reproaches  the  new  schools  of  opinion  with 
solving  two  questions  of  origin  by  two  chimerical  hypotheses : 
the  origin  of  the  species  by  the  hypothesis  of  the  monkey,  or  at 
least  of  the  savage ;  and  the  origin  of  the  individual  by  the  hy- 
pothesis of  an  unfallen  nature.] 

I  would  answer  witli  the  poet : 

**  Give  me  nor  insult  nor  excess  of  praise." 

The  human  race  did  not  commence  with  the  savage, 
and  the  individual  is  not  born  perfect ;  he  is  born  in 
original  sin.  He  who  conducts  the  work  of  education 
with  no  reference  to  this  starting-point,  will  make  a  bad 
and  false  thing  of  it. 

I  have  to  thank  the  eminent  author  of  that  very 
fine  and  excellent  book.  Social  Reform  in  France,  a 
book  of  really  positive  philosophy — a  book  that  deals 
with  facts  without  falsifying  them,  and  which  looks  at 
them  with  the  reason  of  an  observer  and  the  heart  of  a 
good   man.      In   this   book,  one  of  the  things  which 


140  DISCOUESES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

affected  me  most,  is  the  noble  courage  witli  wliicli  the 
author  has  laid  down  as  the  basis  of  education  and  all 
social  progress,  the  dogma  of  original  sin.  I  call  it  a 
dogma,  because  I  am  a  priest,  and  am  speaking  in  the 
name  of  the  Church ;  he  calls  it  a  fact,  because  he  is  a 
man  and  is  speaking  in  the  name  of  experience.  Well, 
it  is  a  dogma,  and  it  is  a  fact, — a  dogma,  because  God 
has  revealed  it;  a  fact,  because  experience  proves  it. 
There  is  not  a  father  of  a  family,  not  a  serious  and 
thoughtful  teacher,  who  has  not  seen  with  his  eyes  and 
touched  with  his  hands  the  reality  of  original  sin. 

Man  is  born  in  a  fallen  state ;  with  tendencies  toward 
truth,  I  admit — w4th  aspirations  after  good,  I  claim.  For 
man  is  great  even  in  his  fall,  like  a  palace  tumbling 
in  upon  itself,  like  a  temple  which  even  in  its  ruins 
keeps  something  of  the  majesty  of  the  god  which  dwelt 
in  it !   Man  is  great  even  in  his  ruins ;  but  he  is  in  ruins ! 

It  is  not  a  perfect  being  that  we  have  to  work  upon, 
but  a  fallen  being.  It  is  not  alone  the  good  tendencies 
in  him  which  must  be  developed,  but  the  depraved 
instincts  which  must  be  repressed.  It  is  not  a  rough 
sketch  of  civilization,  which  we  have  to  complete,  to 
develop,  and  to  perfect,  it  is  an  incursion  of  barbarism 
which  w^e  must  conquer  and  subdue.  Yes,  in  every 
century,  in  every  generation,  we  are  witnesses,  in  the 
bosom  of  our  great  civilization,  of  a  veritable  invasion 
of  barbarians :  they  do  not  come  now  from  the  forests 
of  Germany,  the  deserts  of  Scandinavia  or  Scythia,  they 
come  from  the  depths  of  original  sin.  Your  children, 
as  nature  gives  them  to  you,  are  barbarians,  and  it  is 
for  you  to  civilize  them!  This  is  the  great  work  of 
fathers — the  work  which  gives  such  dignity  to  domestic 
society,  as  compared  with  civil  or  religious  society.  The 
civilizers  of  the  human  race !  say  no  longer  that  they 


EDUCATION   IN   THE  FAMILY.  141 

are  the  princes  and  the  magistrates,  the  thinkers  and 
the  orators.  All  these,  no  doubt,  are  ambassadors  of 
God,  and  benefactors  of  man,  but  theirs  is  necessarily  a 
secondary  part.  The  true  civilizers — the  creators  of 
France  and  of  Europe,  the  legislators  of  modern  soci- 
ety— are  fathers! 

Original  sin,  being  the  starting-point,  necessitates  a 
coercive  force  in  education.  All  society  worthy  of  the 
name  contains  within  itself  a  coercive  force — the  Church 
as  well  as  the  State,  and  domestic  society  as  well  as  both 
the  others.  I  recognize  the  usefulness  and  the  neces- 
sity, according  to  the  circumstances  of  time  and  place, 
of  a  more  or  less  considerable  exercise  of  this  power. 
I  simply  add  that  it  is  itself  subordinate  to  a  supe- 
rior power,  that  of  persuasion,  of  moral  improvement 
through  reason  and  love.  The  principal  instrument  of 
the  Church  is  not  coercive  power.  Do  we  make  sincere 
believers,  virtuous  Christians,  solely  or  chiefly  by  repres- 
sion ?  !N"o,  we  make  only  rebels  or  hypocrites !  Neither 
is  the  supreme  force  of  the  State  its  material  force.  Can 
we  make  citizens,  and  above  all,  French  citizens,  by 
repression  and  force  ?  AVell,  it  is  the  same  thing  in  the 
family :  and  the  father  who  wields  only  the  rod  of  dis- 
cipline, is  as  guilty  and  as  powerless  as  he  who  rejects 
it  in  over-indulgence,  and  never  knows  how  to  com- 
mand or  punish  !  There  is  a  medium — the  great  and 
wise  medium  which  avoids  both  extremes — persuasion, 
by  reason  and  by  love !  Speak,  teach,  by  precept  and 
by  example.  Bring  down  from  those  heights  on  which 
the  father  and  mother  dwell,  and  toward  which  the 
child  is  constantly  looking  upward — bring  down  that 
power  of  truth  and  virtue  which  takes  hold  of  the  free 
faculties  of  the  mind  and  heart,  and  you  will  have  healed 
in  your  child  the  wounds  left  by  the  original  evil ! 


142  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

Above  all,  have  God  with  yon.  I  cannot  conceive  of 
the  repression  of  sin  without  the  divine  action !  God 
must  interfere  in  all  the  acts  of  the  family,  and  must 
himself  be,  so  to  speak,  an  inmate  of  the  home.  This  is 
the  grand  tradition  of  all  free  and  prosperous  peoples  in 
Europe  or  America,  and  it  is  not  for  our  France,  with 
all  respect  to  the  sophists,  to  repudiate  it !  The  presence 
of  God  in  the  majesty  of  the  paternal  brow,  in  the  au- 
thority of  the  sovereign  reason — the  presence  of  God  in 
the  depths  of  the  maternal  heart,  in  the  tenderness  of  the 
love  which  freely  gives  itself  as  God  has  freely  given 
himself  to  it — this  is,  as  we  shall  shortly  see,  the  third 
element  necessary  to  education,  the  most  efficacious  of 
the  laws  which  govern  it. 

Third  Law. — Educatmi  imist  not  7nistalce  about  the 
destination  of  human  life. 

[The  end  to  which  education,  as  well  as  life,  should  tend,  is  God. 
Father  Hyacinthe  here  shows  that  the  presence  of  God  is  neces- 
sary, not  only  to  the  repression  of  evil,  but  to  the  developmer.t  of 
good.  There  are  faculties  in  human  nature  which  cannot  be 
brought  into  exercise,  except  by  religious  training.] 

I  would  not  have  morals  independent  of  religion; 
neithei',  on  the  other  hand,  would  I  have  religion  inde- 
pendent of  morals !  If  religion  find  no  place  in  educa- 
tion ;  if  the  religious  sentiment  be  not  cultivated  in  the 
child's  heart ;  if  the  child  be  not  led,  in  his  will  and  un- 
derstanding, step  by  step  toward  God,  religion  will  not 
be  destroyed,  but  it  will  be  made  independent  of  morals 
and  education. 

It  will  not  be  destroyed,  because  we  cannot  suppress 
facts  by  denying  them.  It  is  a  very  fine  thing  to  deny 
the  existence  of  the  religious  faculty  in  man,  amid  the 
applause  of  some  feeble  creatures  in  whom  this  faculty 


EDUCATION  IN  THE   FAMILY.  143 

lias  become  atrophied ;  but  for  all  that,  the  religions  fac- 
ulty will  continue  to  exist  in  human  nature.  And  if  we 
refuse  it  all  culture  and  all  direction,  it  will  break  out 
in  some  form  savage  and  barbaric  as  original  sin.  Ah  ! 
you  did  not  wish  to  bring  God  into  the  training  of  your 
child's  soul  ?  you  did  not  wish  to  train  up  your  child 
for  God  ?  AVell,  then,  beware  of  terrible  retribution  from 
God  and  from  the  child! 

Let  me  cite  a  recent,  but  historical  example.  The 
founder  of  Positiyism  in  France,  the  man  who  passed 
his  whole  life  in  denying  religion  in  all  forms,  and 
even  in  its  very  essence,  ended  his  career  in  a  state  of 
profound  mysticism,  and  by  a  strange  but  sincere  at- 
tempt at  a  new  religion.  His  favorite  book  was  the  Im- 
itation of  Christ,  and  he  recommended  it  to  his  disci- 
ples as  a  manual  of  humanitarian  piety.  He  composed 
a  Positivist  calendar,  in  which  Christian  saints  go  hand 
in  hand  with  pagan  heroes ;  and,  finally,  he  left  to  the 
executors  of  his  will  the  care  of  his  room,  as  the  cradle 
of  the  worship  of  humanity,  of  which  he  believed  him- 
self the  first  high-priest.* — This  Avas  the  way  in  which 
the  religious  faculty,  so  long  despised,  avenged  itself 
God  was  driven  out  by  the  gate  of  reason,  and  God  came 
back  again  by  the  gate  of  madness ! 

[In  the  presence  of  such  facts  among  cultivated  minds,  the 
preacher  asks,  what  would  become  of  the  masses  if  Christian  edu- 
cation no  longer  gave  to  the  religious  sentiment  in  them  its  legit- 
imate direction.  It  is  safe  to  assert,  that  after  a  few  generations, 
we  should  see  the  formation  of  a  new  paganism,  and  perhaps  even 
the  reproduction  of  the  most  monstrous  extravagances  of  the  old 
paganism — religious  prostitutions  and  human  sacrifices.] 

Leave  us  then  our  Jesus !  I  end  with  him  what  I  had 
to  say  of  education,  because  my  theme  has  not  changed, 

*  Anguste  Comte  et  la  Philosophie  Positive,  by  M.  Lilti'6,  p.  613,  et  jmssim. 


144  DISCOUESES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

my  tone  is  as  unvarying  as  truth ;  I  can  only  begin  and 
end  with  God.  "I  am  Alpha  and  Omega,"  says  he, 
"  the  Beginning  and  the  End."*  And  again  :  "  I  am 
the  First  and  the  Last ;  I  am  he  that  liveth,  and  was 
dead ;  and  behold,  I  am  alive  for  evermore. "f 

Leave  us,  leave  us  our  Jesus  Christ;  he  is  better 
than  all  your  inventions !  Leave  us  that  old  Bibk,  that 
we  may  teach  our  children  to  spell  in  it, — the  Bible 
which  has  created  printing,  the  Bible  which  has  civil- 
ized Europe !  It  is  from  the  Bible  that  the  little  Germans 
and  Scandinavians  are  taught  their  language,  and  to 
love  at  the  same  time  their  religion  and  their  native 
land!  Leave  us  our  Bible — us  Frenchmen  and  Catho- 
lics ;  and  above  all,  our  Bible  expounded  by  the  Church ! 
In  that  Bible  my  young  kindred  and  your  children  may 
spell  out  softly  and  solemnly  the  name  of  Jehovah  in 
heaven,  and  the  name  of  Jesus  in  the  manger  and  on 
Calvary. — What,  Jehovah,  Jesus,  that  boundless  ocean 
— wouldst  hold  it  in  that  little  hollow  in  the  beach 
which  we  call  the  heart  and  mind  of  a  child?  Yea! 
Behold  the  miracle !  That  which  distracted  and  skepti- 
cal sages  find  it  impossible  to  comprehend,  the  child  ac- 
cepts without  difficulty,  like  the  light  of  day,  like  the 
words  and  caresses  of  his  mother.  He  believes  in  the 
eternal  God,  who  loves,  creates,  and  redeems  him.  He 
believes  in  Him,  he  loves  Him  in  return,  and  tells  Him 
so  in  prayer.  The  Bible  and  the  Church  for  his  under- 
standing, prayer  and  the  sacraments  for  his  affections. 
This  is  what  will  give  to  France  and  to  the  world  that 
grand  future  of  which  I  shall  never  despair 

*  Rev.  i.  8.  t  Rev.  ..  IT.  18. 


LECTURE     SIXTH. 
Januaby  6, 1867. 


HOME. 


My  Lord  Archbishop  ais^d  Gentlemen:  In  order 
to  live  in  this  world,  things  invisible — ideas,  souls — 
must  take  to  themselves  a  body  and  a  local  habitation. 
Eoyalty  has  its  palaces,  religion  its  temples ;  the  family 
should  have  its  home.  The  family  and  the  home  imply 
each  other,  and  prepare  each  other  like  soul  and  body 
in  the  person  of  man.  According  to  our  point  of  view, 
we  may  say  with  almost  equal  truth,  that  the  soul  forms 
the  body,  and  that  the  body  forms  the  soul ;  just  so  we 
may  assert  alternately  that  the  family  establishes  and 
preserves  the  home,  and  that  the  home  moulds  and 
keeps  the  family. 

"  I  said :  I  shall  die  in  my  nest ;  I  shall  multiply  my 
days  as  the  sand."*  Who  has  not  repeated  these  words 
of  Job  in  his  heart  ?  Who  has  not  loved  thee,  possessed 
thee,  or  dreamed  of  thee,  thou  dearest  abode  of  man, 
sacred  nest  of  our  loves  and  our  griefs,  where  it  is  so 
sweet  to  live,  and  almost  as  sweet  to  die ! 

On  this  threshold.  Gentlemen,  let  us  pause. 

We  are  about  to  part  to-day  for  another  year,  and  we 
can  nowhere  better  take  leave  of  each  other  than  here. 
You  are  going  back  to  this  abode  of  earthly  happiness ; 
I  am  going  to  seclude  myself  in  that  abode  of  self-denial 

*  Job,  xxix.  18. 
10 


146  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

and  heavenly  liappiness,  the  cloister !  The  cloister  and 
the  family  are  not  foes — they  are  not  even  strangers. 
Awaiting  the  time  when  Providence  shall  bring  us 
together  again,  we  shall  work,  I  hope,  for  the  trium]3h 
of  the  same  cause ;  we  shall  serve  together  the  personal 
and  living  God,  Christ,  the  Organizer  and  Redeemer"  of 
our  race,  and  the  Church,  the  supreme  union  of  family, 
and  country,  and  of  all  mankind ! 

[Father  Ilyacinthe  proposed,  in  this  Lecture,  to  study  the  home 
in  its  three  phases :  1.  Ownership ;  2.  Transmission ;  3.  Occupa- 
tion.] 

EiRST  Part. — Oivnersliip  of  the  Home. 

There  is  no  need  of  doing  for  Home  what  I  have 
done  for  Education.  In  naming  it,  I  have  already 
defined  it.  The  Home  is  the  dwelling-place  of  the 
family. 

A  human  family  must  have  a  dwelling-place;  it 
needs,  by  all  means,  to  own  a  home.  As  for  us  who 
belong  to  the  Catholic  celibacy,  we  may  do  without! 
Jesus  Christ,  bidding  us  count  the  cost  in  advance,  has 
told  us :  "  The  foxes  have  holes,  and  the  birds  of  the 
air  have  nests ;  but  the  Son  of  man  hath  not  where  to 
lay  his  head."*  He  alone,  then,  who  feels  himself  called 
to  follow  him  afar  off  along  these  heroic  paths,  may 
taste  their  austere  delights;  he  cannot  enter  into  volun- 
tary poverty  but  by  the  gate  of  absolute  continence. 
But  the  man  of  family,  the  man  who  is  not  one  but 
'many,  is  not  free  to  divorce  himself  from  the  earth: 
it  would  be  folly ;  and  if  this  folly  were  possible,  it  would 
be  a  crime  !  He  must  have  in  this  w^orld — on  this  soil 
on  which  we  tread — some  sacred  corner  where  he  may 

*  Matthew,  viii.  20. 


HOME.  147 

place  the  bed  of  his  wife  and  the  cradle  of  his  children. 
But  this  transient  and  make-shift  possession  of  a  home 
— a  home  that  is  occupied,  but  not  owned — does  not 
suffice  to  realize  the  ideal  of  the  home.  That  ideal  is 
absolute  ownership,  conferring  not  only  the  right  to  use 
for  the  time  being,  but  the  simple  and  permanent  fee. 
This  is  the  sort  of  ownership  which  becomes  to  the 
family  a  principle  of  liberty,  of  order,  and  of  happi- 
ness. 

The  ownership  of  the  home  is  a  principle  of  liherfy. 
Yes,  indeed!  w^e  are  not  really  our  own,  as  a  general 
thing,  unless  we  are  completely  in  our  own  house.  This 
is  a  great  principle  in  the  legislation  of  all  civilized  na- 
tions— the  inviolability  of  the  citizen's  domicile:  and 
this  inviolability  covers  another — it  is  the  safeguard,  the 
affirmation  of  the  inviolability  of  the  person.  I  ven- 
ture to  assert  that  the  inviolability  of  the  man  and  the 
citizen  is  never  more  strongly  affirmed  and  more  effec- 
tively secured  than  in  the  ownership  of  the  dwelling, 
the  absolute  and  complete  ownership  of  the  house  in 
which  he  dwells.  And  if  this  be  true  of  the  man — if  it 
is  the  right  of  property  which  makes  him  free  and  sove- 
reign at  home,  which  draws  around  him  those  lines 
that  no  one  in  the  world  dares  cross  without  his  leave, 
how  much  more  is  it  true  of  the  family,  of  that  collec- 
tive person  which  has  many  lives  to  defend,  and  which 
is  attached  to  life  by  many  and  varied  ties !  Ah,  the 
family — it  is  like  those  giants,  sons  of  Earth,  who  when 
they  fell,  plucked  up  strength  again  as  soon  as  they 
touched  the  ground ;  and  even  in  the  bosom  of  poverty, 
it  will  live  on,  full  of  energy,  full  of  faith  in  itself 
and  its  future,  if  it  can  rest  secure  in  the  possession  of 
its  little  cot  and  its  little  field !  "  Better,"  says  the  in- 
spired book,   "  better  the  meal  of  the  poor  under  a 


148  DISCOURSES   OF   FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

thatched  roof,   than   splendid  banquets  in  a   strange 
house !" 

But  ownership  is  not  only  a  principle  of  independ- 
ence for  the  family,  it  is  also  a  principle  of  order.  It 
is  thus  that  God  has  arranged  the  laws  of  the  moral 
world;  he  has  joined  together  things  which  at  first 
sight  seemed  incompatible.  The  family  must  be  free, 
but  the  family  must  also  be  conservative.  For  owner- 
ship is  not  only  a  fact,  it  is  a  fact  glorified  by  an  idea ; 
it  is  not  only  an  interest,  the  first  of  all  interests,  con- 
taining the  germ  of  all  the  rest,  it  is  an  interest  conse- 
crated by  the  holiness  and  majesty  of  right!  Touch 
not  this  patch  of  ground !  it  is  guarded,  not  by  one  fee- 
ble individual  only;  it  is  defended  by  the  solidarity  and 
confederation  of  all  rights!  All  rights  are  interde- 
pendent in  this  world :  the  rights  of  the  w^ak  cling  to 
those  of  the  strong ;  and  the  rights  of  the  strong,  when 
their  hour  of  peril  comes,  are  fain  to  fall  back  upon 
those  of  the  weak.  Property,  then,  is  conservative ;  it 
breatlies  a  certain  inspiration  of  equity  which  affects  the 
poor  man,  the  laborer,  the  peasant,  which  renders  them 
deaf  to  the  perfidious  whispers  of  revolution,  and  leads 
them  to  hope,  not  in  catastrophes,  but  in  progress — nor- 
mal and  harmonious  progress.  Consequently,  the  pos- 
session of  property  by  the  people  is  the  solution  of  the 
most  difiicult  questions  of  the  time  in  which  we  live, 
this  age  of  mingled  industry  and  democracy.  Let  it  be 
brought  about  little  by  little,  in  our  great  cities,  in  our 
manufacturing  centres,  that  the  workman  shall  be  no 
longer  the  tenant  of  some  damp  cellar,  or  some  freezing 
garret,  but  the  owner  of  his  home,  and  I  repeat  it,  he 
himself,  henceforth  both  liberal  and  conservative,  will 
set  the  seal  of  reconciliation  and  peace  upon  those  cruel 
antagonisms  which  divide  and  destroy  us. 


HOME.  149 

The  ownership  of  a  home  is  not  only  a  principle  of 
liberty  and  a  principle  of  order,  it  is  also  a  principle 
of  liapjjiness.  The  proud  sentiment  of  liberty  is  one 
of  the  inmost  sentiments  in  the  mind  of  man.  Another 
of  these  inmost  sentiments  is  the  calm  and  sober  senti- 
ment of  order !  But  there  is  something,  in  my  opinion, 
■deeper  yet — the  sentiment  of  domestic  happiness!  We 
cannot  live  always  in  the  dreams  of  the  imagination, 
the  passions  of  the  heart,  or  the  intoxication  of  the 
senses.  There  comes  an  hour  when  man  aspires,  by  all 
that  is  noblest  and  deepest  in  his  nature,  for  something 
settled — something  which  will  fix  the  moA^ements  of  his 
life  without  confining  them,  which  will  settle  and  make 
them  fruitful.  Somewhere  or  other  he  seeks  a  corner  of 
the  earth  for  himself:  there  he  builds  his  dwelling;  and 
hollowing  out  a  fireside  in  the  thickness  of  the  wall,  he 
lays  together  bricks  and  stones  in  a  cement  which  will 
defy  the  centuries!  And  then,  his  work  finished,  he 
seats  himself  beside  it.  He  peoples  it  in  imagination 
with  a  joyous  group — the  future  companion  of  his  life — 
his  children  that  are  to  be.  Looking  silently  into  that 
sacred  niche — mysterious  centre  of  the  human  family — 
he  listens  to  the  distracting  sounds  without — the  din  of 
the  city;  the  sounds  of  nature;  the  confused  rumors 
of  trouble ;  the  uneasy  tumult  of  the  throng  of  yester- 
day ;  to  the  careerings  and  whistlings  of  the  wind ;  to 
the  rain,  which  beats  against  the  windows,  fierce  but 
powerless  ;  and  the  while,  he,  sitting  there  in  honor  and 
in  peace,  leaning  his  head  and  resting  his  heart  by  this 
warm  and  quiet  fireside,  murmurs  in  his  soul,  if  not 
with  his  lips,  "  This  is  my  rest  ft)reyer ;  here  will  I  dwell, 
for  I  have  desired  it."* 

Stability  in  the  happiness  of  domestic  life — this  is  the 

*  Psalm  cxsxii.  14. 


150  DISCOURSES    OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

idea  wliich  is  connected  with,  the  possession  of  a  home. 
It  is  a  rude,  but  most  delightful  symbol,  of  the  perma- 
nence which  is  promised  to  man  after  this  life,  and 
which  dwells  already  in  the  depths  of  the  Christian 
heart.  "  "We  have  a  building  of  God,  a  house  not  made 
with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens/'*  We  have  a  home 
and  household  joys  with  uncreated  truth  and  justice ; 
but,  until  the  time  when  we  shall  take  possession  of  our 
heritage  in  the  infinite,  when  we  shall  inherit  from  God 
the  home  in  eternity,  we  must  needs  be  heirs  of  that 
sweet  reflection  from  the  heart  and  face  of  God,  the 
family  fireside.  This  is  why  the  inspired  books  delight 
to  unite  these  two  things,  religion  and  the  family.  It 
is  to  that  roof,  the  guardian  of  good  morals  as  well  as 
of  true  joys,  that  they  are  continually  sending  their 
disciple.  "  Drink  waters  out  of  thine  own  cistern," 
cries  the  sage  of  Israel,  in  that  Eastern  style  so  full  of 
boldness  and  purity :  "  drink  running  waters  out  of 
thine  own  well,  and  let  them  be  only  thine  own,  and 
not  strangers'  with  thee  !  Eejoice  with  the  wife  of  thy 
youth !  Let  her  be  as  the  loving  hind  and  pleasant  roe : 
let  her  breasts  satisfy  thee  at  all  times,  and  be  thou 
ravished  always  with  her  love."f 

David  has  sung  this  domestic  happiness  on  the  harp 
of  the  God  of  Sinai:  ^*  Blessed  is  every  one  that  feareth 
the  Lord ;  that  walketh  in  his  ways.  For  thou  shalt 
eat  the  labor  of  thine  hands :  happy  shalt  thou  be,  and 
it  shall  be  well  with  thee.  Thy  wife  shall  be  as  a  fruitful 
/ine  by  the  sides  of  thine  house  ;  thy  children  like  olive 
plants  round  about  thy  table :  Behold,  thus  shall  the 
man  be  blessed  that  feareth  the  Lord.  The  Lord  shall 
bless  thee  out  of  Zion ;  and  thou  shalt  see  the  good  of 

4 
*  2  Corinthians,  v.  1.  t  Proverbs,  v.  15-19. 


HOME.  151 

Jerusalem  all  the  days  of  thy  life.     Yea,  thou  shalt  see 
thy  children's  children,  and  peace  upon  Israel  !"* 

You  see,  Gentlemen,  how  the  prophets  of  God,  the 
teachers  of  the  Jews  and  of  mankind,  have  celebrated 
the  holiness  and  happiness  of  home.  For  in  this  law  of 
happiness  there  is  a  law  of  holiness :  man  cannot  be 
happy  unless  he  finds  something  as  great  and  pure  as 
infinity,  at  the  depth  of  his  loves.  Go  to  the  broken 
cistern,  go  to  that  happiness  which  is  only  of  the  flesh, 
and  you  will  find  but  a  dribbling  thread  of  water,  a 
scanty  and  insipid  draught,  which  can  never  quench  the 
great,  infinite  thirst  of  the  hum.an  heart !  but  go  to  the 
well  of  the  family  and  of  God,  go  to  the  well  of  Jacob, 
where  the  Lord  sat  and  talked  to  the  Samaritan  woman ; 
drink  at  those  founts  of  joy  which  God  himself  has  con- 
secrated ;  you  will  drink  in  happiness  with  holiness,  like 
a  foretaste  of  that  well  of  water  that  springeth  up  unto 
everlasting  life. 


Pakt  Secokd. — Transmissio7i  of  the  Home. 

[The  preacher  remarks,  in  the  first  place,  that  perfect  owner- 
ship implies  transmission^  and  that,  in  consequence,  this  second 
characteristic  of  the  home  grows  out  of  the  first.] 

The  home  ought  to  be  transmitted ;  but  why  ? 

First,  because  it  is  2,  fact.  People  insist  on  facts  now- 
a-days,  and  with  reason,  for  it  is  from  facts  that  we  de- 
rive ideas  and  laws.  Now,  it  is  a  fact  in  the  history  of 
domestic  life,  among  all  races  and  in  all  ages,  that  the 
home  has  been  handed  down  from  father  to  son.  It  is 
enough  for  me  that  it  is  a  fact,  and  I  assert  it  on  the 
testimony  of  all  mankind. 

*  Pealm  cxxviii. 


152  DISCOURSES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

For  my  part,  I  shall  never  be  one  of  that  sort  of  phi- 
lanthropists who  have  no  respect  for  humanity  except 
where  it  is  not  to  be  found — that  is  to  say,  in  the  future : 
strange  minds,  who  have  nothing  for  its  past  but  blas- 
phemies, and  nothing  for  its  present  but  revolt ;  but 
who  make  amends  for  this  by  the  adoration  with  which 
they  honor  it  in  some  imaginary  and  impossible 
future ! 

Besides,  this  hereditary  transmission  of  the  home  is 
not  only  a  thing  of  the  past,  it  is  a  thing  of  the  present 
also.  It  exists  throughout  all  Europe ;  and  though 
France  should  seem  to  be  an  exception,  I  must  never- 
theless insist  upon  it  as  a  law  of  the  civilization  of  the 
present  day. 

France,  Gentlemen,  France  is  an  exceptional  country 
— exceptional  in  her  glory,  exceptional  in  her  misfor- 
tunes. For  eighty  years  France  has  been  a  devoted 
land.  She  has  devoted  herself  as  a  victim,  she  has  de- 
voted herself  as  a  martyr,  to  the  pursuit  of  great  ideas 
which  it  is  her  mission  to  poj)ularize  in  the  world,  but 
of  which  she  has  not  yet  discovered  the  settled  defini- 
tion and  the  practical  application.  I  admire  France  in 
her  work — I  admire  her  in  her  heroic  sacrifice  of  herself 
in  the  pursuit  of  an  unknown  end ;  but  I  do  not  take 
her  for  a  rule,  in  all  the  blind  gropings  to  which  her 
mission  condemns  her. 

And  after  all,  our  country  is  not  an  exception  in  this 
respect.  If  we  consider  the  real  France,  in  the  prov- 
inces as  well  as  the  capital,  in  the  country  as  well  as  in 
manufacturing  towns,  the  law  of  the  transmission  of  the 
home  is  still  the  controlling  law  of  our  national  usages. 
It  is,  then,  an  assertion  based  upon  facts,  in  the  present 
as  well  as  the  past,  that  the  transmission  of  the  ances- 
tral home  is  not,  to  be  sure,  among  the  absolute  neces- 


HOME.  153 

sities,  but  one  of  the  normal  and  prosperous  conditions 
of  domestic  society. 

But  I  wish  to  find  the  I'eason  of  this  law. 

The  family  is  not  that  ephemeral  thing  we  sometimes 
see,  which  does  not  last  even  for  a  man's  lifetime,  and 
which,  beginning  with  the  marriage  contract,  ends  with 
the  coming  of  age  and  scattering  of  the  children.  The 
family  is  an  institution  which  is  all  the  stronger  in  the 
present  as  its  roots  are  deeper  in  the  past,  and  as  it  has  a 
manlier  ambition  and  more  practical  means  of  perpetu- 
ating itself  in  the  future.  Tlie  true  father,  when  he 
bequeaths  to  his  son  the  glory  of  his  blood,  the  tradi- 
tions of  his  mind  and  heart,  the  carrying  forward  of 
his  work,  sees  other  sons  beyond  this  one — he  beholds 
generation  after  generation ;  and  getting  the  victory 
over  death,  he  lays  claim,  not  to  an  ephemeral  immor- 
tality, but  to  an  immortality  for  ages  to  come. 

The  family,  then,  is  a  permanent  institution,  and 
therefore  implies,  on  the  one  hand,  the  transmission  of 
material  interests;  on  the  other,  the  transmission  of 
moral  traditions.  The  family  has  these  two  bases:  in 
its  moral  relations  it  rests  upon  love,  honor,  religion, 
virtue ;  in  its  material  relations  it  is  founded  upon  the 
soil,  upon  property,  upon  all  the  interests  which  attach 
thereto.  I  repeat,  then,  tliese  moral  and  material  tradi- 
tions are  not  the  things  of  a  day  nor  the  work  of  an 
individual ;  they  are  the  work  of  generations,  and  they 
occupy  the  course  of  successive  ages ! 

1st.  Let  us  take,  first,  material  interests  :  let  us  study 
them  in  these  country-places  of  which  I  have  spoken. 
Country  life  is  the  primitive  life  of  man,  as  it  was  insti- 
tuted by  divine  authority,  in  the  person  of  our  first 
parents. 

"  The  Lord  God  placed  man  in  the  garden  of  Eden,  to 


154  DISCOURSES    OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

dress  it  and  to  keep  it."*  This  was  oiir  original  vocation, 
and  whatever  we  may  do,  we  all  preserve,  in  the  depth 
of  our  nature,  a  sort  of  instinct  for  it,  stronger  than  all 
our  errors.  Every  year,  as  the  Sj^ring  comes  round,  the 
wealthy  resident  of  the  city  feels  these  memories  revive 
within  him;  he  exclaims,  like  Horace,  weary  of  the 
court  of  Augustus :  "  Dear  country,  when  shall  I  behold 
thee  once  again  ?"  0  rus,  quando  te  asjncimn  ?  and 
away  he  goes  to  seek  health  and  happiness  at  his  coun- 
try-seat. Furthermore,  besides  these  exceptional  cases, 
there  are  an  immense  majority  in  every  nation,  who 
always  live  in  the  country ;  and  theirs  is  the  model  and 
perfect  home — the  home  not  cramped  up  among  streets 
and  alleys,  but  surrounded  by  grounds,  where  the  family, 
truly  free  and  sovereign,  without  crossing  the  line  of 
their  own  property,  can  get  from  their  own  land,  by  their 
own  labor,  all  that  is  necessary  or  useful  to  the  comfort 
and  even  the  luxury  of  life.  And  here,  again,  I  recall  a 
verse  out  of  our  holy  books — a  very  simple,  but  a  very  true 
and  very  original  idea:  "For  the  good,  are  good  things 
created  from  the  beginning.  The  principal  things  for 
the  whole  use  of  man's  life  are  water,  fire,  iron,  and  salt, 
flour  of  wheat,  honey,  milk,  and  the  blood  of  the  grape, 
and  oil  and  clothing."  f  Now  all  these  things  are  found 
on  the  country  homestead.  There  are  the  bees  that  give 
wax  and  honey ;  there  are  the  flocks  which  yield  wool 
and  milk.  The  country  homestead  is  ready  to  take  part 
in  every  covenant  between  man  and  those  living  forces 
that  have  been  intrusted  to  nature  by  the  hand  of  God, 
for  the  service  of  human  civilization. 

But   all   this,  I  repeat,  this  creation  of  the  country 
homestead,  is  not  the  afiair  of  a  single  day,  nor  the  work 

*  Genesis,  ii.  15.  t  Ecclesiasticue,  xxxix.  25,  26. 


HOME.  155 

of  a  single  man.  The  earth  is  like  the  child  of  whom  I 
was  speaking  not  long  ago,  it  bears  the  marks  of  origi- 
nal sin.  "Cursed  is  the  ground  for  thy  sake — thorns 
also  and  thistles  shall  it  bring  forth  to  thee  !*  It  an- 
swers with  barrenness  and  frowardness  to  thy  sweat  and 
thy  labor.  The  earth  itself  is  a  rebel  and  a  savage,  and 
it  is  not  till  after  long  years  of  laborious  education,  that 
it  yields  at  last  to  the  hand  of  man,  and  advances 
from  barbarism  to  civilization.  But  what  thought  and 
experience,  what  perseverance,  have  been  demanded  in 
the  head  that  directed  the  progress  of  the  improve- 
ment of  the  land!  What  energy  and  courage  must 
equip  the  hands  that  have  wrought  out  these  plans 
into  execution  !  It  is  not  the  work  of  a  single  man  to 
make  covenant  wdth  the  vegetable  kingdom,  to  plant 
trees  and  enjoy  their  shade  and  their  fruits ;  neither  is 
it  the  work  of  a  single  man  to  make  covenant  with 
those  inferior  races  in  which  Providence  has  given  us 
our  lawful  slaves,  our  indispensable  allies,  and  (if  I 
might  so  speak)  our  too  much  neglected  benefactors — 
the  domestic  animals,  who,  as  their  name  imports,  are  a 
part  of  the  home,  and  to  whom  the  Lord  did  not  dis- 
dain to  extend  the  covenant  he  made  with  Noah  and 
his  family :  "  Behold,  I  establish  my  covenant  with  you, 
and  with  your  seed  after  you,  and  with  every  living 
creature  that  is  with  you."f  To  develop  and  improve 
these  races,  to  associate  them  with  the  habits  of  the 
country  family,  and  with  the  whole  system  of  the  culti- 
vation of  the  soil,  we  still  need  traditions,  years,  genera- 
tions ! 

Now,  Gentlemen,  if  you  refuse  this  element  of  time, 
if  you  will  not  inscribe  over  all  property,  and  especially- 

*  Genesis,  iii.  17,  18.  t  Genesis,  ix.  9, 10. 


156  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

over  all  country  property,  this  great  word,  transmission, 
inheritance,  what  is  to  become  of  all  this  work  ?  And 
when  the  man  who  shall  have  undertaken  it,  the  father 
of  the  family,  feels  himself  bending  beneath  its  burden 
far  more  than  beneath  the  burden  of  years ;  when  he 
feels  creeping  upon  his  temples  what  they  call,  in  the 
poetic  language  of  the  south  of  France,  '^graveyard 
flowers''' — the  first  gray  hairs — he  will  look  mournfully 
at  what  he  has  begun,  what  he  is  never  to  finish ;  he 
will  look  at  the  possessions  which  are  about  to  slip  away 
from  him,  and  be  desecrated  by  uncaring  hands ;  and 
then  he  will  have  no  more  courage  to  toil  and  labor  as 
now,  he  will  have  courage  only  to  weep ;  and  property 
will  receive  a  wound  that  all  your  Reports  on  Agricul- 
ture will  never  cure,  to  the  end  of  time. 

Our  peasants  understand  this  matter, — those  practi- 
cal philosophers,  learned  in  the  lore  of  experience  and 
tradition.  I  say  again,  I  am  not  speaking  against  my 
country,  but  with  her  and  in  her  behalf  I  could  point 
out  to  you,  in  one  of  our  provinces,  among  their  rugged 
but  fertile  mountains,  races  true  to  their  old  proverb — 
"The  hearth-fire  must  be  kept  a-light."*  And  that  the 
sacred  flame  may  be  kept  burning  in  the  same  dwelling 
and  by  the  same  hands,  they  make  long  migrations  to 
the  great  cities,  that  they  may  bring  back  their  savings, 
the  honorable  reward  of  toil,  and  find  once  more  that 
fireside  which  their  sacrifice  has  saved — that  fireside,  the 
sight  of  which  cheers  the  heart  as  well  as  the  body,  as 
they  say,  "  Aha !  I  am  warm,  I  have  seen  the  fire  !"f 

2d.  I  pass  now  to  moral  interests.  It  is  not  the  acci- 
dent of  blood  which  attaches  the  child  to  the  father. 
Paternity  is  pre-eminently  a  matter  of  liberty  and  fore- 

♦  Proveria  of  Aurergne ;  '♦  H  faut  que  la  maisop  funje."       +  Is,  xliv.  16, 


HOME.  157 

thouglit,  in  its  moral  relations.  Like  God,  whose  image 
he  is,  the  father  has  "  created  all  things  in  number  and 
measttre  and  weight."*  lie  has  weighed  everything  in 
the  balance  of  his  reason  and  his  heart,  and  has  said: 
"  I  will  have  sons,  I  will  raise  np  a  race  unto  myself, 
and  I  will  bequeath  an  uncorrupted  blood,  an  honorable 
name ;  and  with  these,  immortal  traditions  of  honor, 
and  patriotism,  and  religion  !  The  things  I  learned  on  my 
mother's  lap,  and  between  my  father's  arms — the  things 
I  have  loved,  and  for  which  I  have  toiled — shall  never 
perish  from  beneath  the  sun!"  What  constitutes  the 
family,  then,  in  the  moral  system,  is  that  combination  of 
principles,  sentiments,  and  operations,  which  our  ances- 
tors have  wished  to  maintain  after  them;  it  is  a  life 
which  is  developed  and  perpetuated  in  a  collective  person. 
But  let  us  take  care  not  to  become  too  spiritual: 
mind  does  not  cut  loose  from  matter.  Look  at  the 
grace  of  God,  of  all  things  in  the  world  the  most  spirit- 
ual, for  it  is  the  communication  of  his  own  life  to  our 
souls — it  has  not  disdained  to  connect  itself  with  mat- 
ter. It  is  joined  to  some  little  drop  of  water  or  oil, 
some  particle  of  bread  or  wine !  So  the  moral  traditions 
of  the  family  attach  themselves  to  material  things — to 
the  portraits  of  ancestors — to  family  heir-looms — to 
the  house,  all  impregnated,  as  one  might  say,  with  the 
spirit  of  the  ancestors — to  the  blessed  roof  which  has  shel- 
tered them — to  the  fireside  that  has  been  the  confidant 
of  their  joys  and  of  their  griefs,  that  has  shone  upon  so 
many  a  cradle  and  so  many  a  cofiin !  All  this  speaks 
to  the  heart !  Who  can  deny  it  ?  But  lo !  the  mere 
hired  apartment  of  our  parents,  the  house  where  we 
were  born,  where  wc  grew  up,  children  of  the  fluctu- 
ating and  tumultuous  city !  when  wc  see  it  again  after 

*  Wisdom,  xi.  20. 


158  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

a  lapse  of  years,  we  feel  a  wound  re-open  in  our  hearts, 
our  eyes  fill  with  tears  of  inexpressible  anguish  and 
delight,  and  we  cry  with  the  poet : 

'*  O  lifeless  objects,  have  ye  then  a  soul, 
That  cliDgs  to  ours,  and  forces  it  to  love?"* 

If  a  house  in  which  we  have  lived  for  a  few  years, 
speaks  so  eloquent  a  language  to  our  soul,  what  must 
be  that  of  an  old  ancestral  mansion,  in  which  genera- 
tions have  followed  generations,  where  honor  has  accu- 
mulated upon  honor,  where  goodness  and  virtue  have 
gathered,  as  it  were,  in  layers  upon  the  walls  ?  The  pa- 
rental home  is  a  sort  of  sacrament  of  the  family,  making 
the  family  visible  and  operative !  A  sacrament,  as  we 
have  said,  is  both  a  sign  and  a  power ;  the  ancestral 
home  is  a  sign  which  expresses  the  collective  unity  of  a 
race,  and  a  power  which  works  the  perpetuation  of  it 
from  generation  to  generation. 

Part  Third. —  Occupation  of  the  Home. 

[The  preacher  here  puts  the  question  why  the  home,  as  he  has 
described  it,  is  less  and  less  understood  and  realized  among  us ; 
why  we  do  not  feel  more  keenly  the  importance  of  its  possession 
and  its  transmission  ?  One  of  the  principal  causes  is  the  violation 
of  this  third  law :  the  family  home  should  be  occupied.l 

Alas !  of  this  poor  broken-up  and  wandering  hearth, 
even  that  which  still  remains  to  us  is  deserted !  Sacred 
stone  of  the  family,  centre  of  the  domestic  group,  like 
Jerusalem,  thou  art  "left  desolate!"  Let  us  fix  our 
eyes  a  while  upon  this  picture  of  desolation.  It  is  pain- 
ful, but  it  must  be  done ! 

The  children — where  are  they  ?    They  are  but  two  or 

*  Objets  inanimes,  avez-vous  done  une  ame 
Qui  s'attache  a  notre  ame,  et  la  force  d'aimer  ? 

Lamartine. 


HOME.  159 

three  in  number,  sometimes  but  one.  A  lonely  plant, 
always  sad,  often  puny,  of  selfish  nature,  without  ten- 
derness and  without  joy,  finding  nothing  around  it  to 
love  or  to  play  with.  This  little  solitary,  a  nuisance  to 
itself,  and  a  nuisance,  or  at  least  an  embarrassment  to 
others — they  make  haste  to  be  rid  of  it  out  of  the  house ; 
and  a  boarding-school  education  finishes  the  work  of  a 
barren  wedlock. 

But  the  father  of  the  family?  Ah!  for  the  true 
father  of  a  family,  for  the  true  head  of  a  house,  his 
home  is  the  dream  of  all  his  day.  For  long,  long  hours, 
work  and  business  keep  him  away  from  it.  But  in  the 
evening  ?  The  day  is  for  labor,  the  evening  is  for  the 
family  and  for  God !  The  star  shines  not  in  the  sky  so 
sweetly  as  the  rays  of  the  lamp  or  the  reflection  of  the 
firelight  in  the  window  of  that  distant  house,  the  place 
of  his  joys  and  his  repose,  toward  which  he  w^ends  his 
way,  in  meditation  or  in  prayer.  But  no !  what  should 
he  do  there  ?  Home  has  no  charm  for  him :  his  children 
are  no  longer  there ;  his  wife  is  there,  no  doubt — yes, 
his  wife ! — but  too  often  virtual  divorce  has  divided 
them  in  heart  and  mind :  they  bear  the  same  name, 
they  live  in  the  same  house ;  but  there  is  no  near  and 
high  communion  between  the  two.  They  have  nothing 
to  say  to  each  other,  because  there  is  no  love  between 
them — no  community  of  thought  and  feeling. 

The  wife  without  a  husband,  the  mother  without 
children — the  woman  doubly-widowed !  Ah  I  I  see  her, 
wandering,  like  a  piteous  ghost,  by  certain  hearth- 
stones whose  honor  she  cherishes  amid  their  ruins, 
weeping  over  those  cold  ashes,  the  ashes  of  her  ow^n 
heart  and  life !  "  Call  me  not  Naomi,  call  me  Mara,  for 
the  Almighty  hath  dealt  very  bitterly  with  me  !"*    A 

*  Kuth,  i.  20. 


160  DISCOUESES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

bitter  lot,  in  truth,  and  few  the  heroines  among  those 
on  whom  it  falls. 

I  look  at  the  two  extremes  of  society,  and  I  see  the 
ruin  of  the  family  completed  through  woman,  both  in 
the  higher  and  in  the  poorer  classes. 

In  the  poorer  classes,  there  was  a  time  when  woman 
was  called  wife,  mother ;  they  have  baptized  her,  now-a- 
days,  by  a  name  that  does  not  belong  in  our  language — 
the  ivorTcwomanl  The  workman  I  know  and  honor; 
but  I  do  not  know  the  workwoman.  I  am  astounded,  I 
am  alarmed,  whenever  I  hear  this  word.  What  ?  This 
young  woman — is  toil,  unpitying,  unintelligent  toil,  to 
come  bursting  in  her  door  in  the  early  morning,  to 
seize  her  in  its  two  iron  fists,  and  drag  her  from  what 
ought  to  be  her  home  and  sanctuary  to  the  factory  that 
is  withering  and  consuming  her  day  by  day  ?  What  ? 
Is  toil — brutal,  murderous  toil — to  kill  her  children,  or 
at  least  to  snatch  them  screaming  from  their  cradles 
and  give  them  over  into  stranger  hands  ?  And  all  the 
time  a  false  philosophy  will  be  lifting  its  head  and 
shouting:  *^ Equality!  equality  for  man  and  woman! 
equality  for  the  workwoman  by  the  side  of  the  work- 
man !"  Ah,  yes,  equality  in  slavery !  or  rather  a  pro- 
found inequality  in  slavery  and  martyrdom  ! 

Ah !  Gentlemen,  I  breathe  again  ;  for  all  these  things 
are  but  the  excesses  of  industrial  enterprise.  But  there 
is  something  else  than  this  amongst  us — thank  God, 
there  is  something  else  !  Only  the  day  before  yesterday, 
to  go  no  further  back,  I  saw  the  proof  of  it.  This  Uni- 
versal Exposition  of  industry,  which  promises  us,  in- 
stead of  the  horrors  of  war,  the  glories  of  peace,  has 
understood  that  it  is  becoming  more  and  more  neces- 
sary to  impress  upon  the  work  of  material  riches  the 
seal  of  moral  goodness.     The  Exposition  has  institutea 


HOME.  161 

a  special  jury  to  award  prizes  to  social  yirtue,  tlie  virtue 
which  contributes  most  directly  to  peace  and  public 
order.  Well,  the  day  before  yesterday,  in  a  meeting  of 
that  grave  body,  there  was  but  one  voice,  one  unanimous 
voice,  to  proclaim  the  keeping  of  the  mother  of  the 
family  at  home  as  the  remedy  for  our  evils,  and  the 
stimulus  to  our  progress.  If  we  are  compelled  to  open 
our  eyes,  then,  to  craving  wants  and  profound  miseries, 
we  must  also  lift  our  heads  hopefully,  and  struggle 
against  them  energetically. 

And  now  what  shall  I  say  of  the  other  extreme  of 
society  ?  The  woman  of  the  higher  classes  in  our  great 
cities  is  subject  to  another  seduction — to  a  different 
tyi'anny:  the  seduction  of  the  world,  the  tyranny  of 
pleasure. 

I  would  not  drive  our  French  ladies  from  the  drawing- 
room  ;  far  from  it.  I  would  that  drawing-rooms  now 
silent  might  be  restored  again,  and  that  the  j^resent 
ones  might  be  even  more  frequented.  The  Parisian 
drawing-room  perpetuates  not  only  the  traditions  of  wit 
and  grace,  but  the  more  precious  traditions  of  just 
ideas,  noble  manners,  honorable  and  elevated  senti- 
ments. I  know  that  in  those  drawing-rooms  which 
have  ever  been  the  special  honor  of  our  nation,  it  is  the 
Frenchwoman,  the  accomplished  woman  of  the  world, 
who  has  wielded  this  beneficent  sceptre ;  it  is  she  who, 
leaving  to  others  the  care  of  making  laws  and  writiug 
books,  has  chosen  rather  to  inspire  ideas,  mould  man- 
ners, and  govern  through  them. 

I  make  no  attack,  then,  on  the  reign  of  woman  in  the 
drawing-room.  But  what  I  do  attack  is  the  sacrifice  of 
the  home  to  the  drawing-room,  and  above  all,  to  that 
life  of  excitement  and  dissipation  which  is  called,  now- 
a-days,  "being  in  society."     Begin  by  living  at  home, 


162  DISCOURSES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

and  be — I  am  not  afraid  of  the  word,  even  for  women 
of  the  loftiest  position — be  liouseivives ;  a  common- 
sounding  word,  but  in  reality  sublime !  That  is  your 
empire,  the  empire  of  the  earnest  woman ;  be  house- 
wives, watch  over  the  realm  of  home ;  be  the  educators 
of  your  servants  and  your  maids — of  your  dornestics. 
The  very  word  might  tell  you  this — dwellers  in  the 
house — I  had  almost  said,  members  of  the  family. 
Domestics  were  the  strength  and  glory  of  the  society  of 
former  days;  they  are  the  peril  and  the  scourge  of 
society  in  our  day :  it  is  in  great  part  the  mistress  of  the 
house  that  makes  them  what  they  are. 

The  occuiMtion  of  the  home  coming  in  to  confirm  the 
two  holy  laws  of  ii^ possession  and  its  transmissio?i,  this  is 
the  delightful,  lasting,  and  religious  form  in  which  domes- 
tic society  appears  to  us  as  instituted  by  Providence. 

i  call  to  mind  the  patriarch  Jacob,  as  he  went  to 
Mesopotamia  to  look  for  a  wife  worthy  of  him  in  the 
house  of  his  kinsman  Laban.  The  grandson  of  Abra- 
ham, destined  to  found  and  give  name  to  the  house  of 
Israel,  slept,  one  evening,  after  sunset,  upon  a  stone 
which  he  had  placed  under  his  head  for  a  pillow;  and 
there,  in  the  simplicity  which  marked  the  communica- 
tion of  God  to  man  in  ancient  days,  Jacob  dreamed 
dreams  which  were  more  of  heaven  than  of  earth :  he 
saw  a  ladder  that  rested  on  the  ground  beside  him,  but 
whose  top  pierced  beyond  the  stars ;  the  angels  of  the 
Lord  descended  along  its  steps  and  returned  again,  and 
at  its  summit  the  Lord  himself  appeared  and  said :  "  I 
am  the  Lord  God  of  Abraham,  and  the  God  of  Isaac 
thy  father;  the  land  whereon  thou  liest,  to  thee  will  I 
give  it  and  to  thy  seed ;  and  thy  seed  shall  be  as  the 
dust  of  the  earth,  and  thou  shalt  spread  abroad  to  the 


HOME.  163 

west,  and  to  the  east,  and  to  the  north,  and  to  the 
south."*  And  when  in  the  morning  the  son  of  Isaac 
arose  from  his  slumbers  and  his  dreams,  he  looked  at 
the  stone  upon  which  he  had  slept ;  he  reared  it  with 
reverent  hands,  and  anointing  it  with  sacred  oil,  he  set 
it  np  for  an  altar,  and  said:  "Thou  shalt  be  called 
Bethel,  that  is,  the  House  of  God."f 

I  am  thinking,  Gentlemen,  of  you !  This  ladder, 
which  begins  and  ends  in  heaven,  and  does  but  touch 
the  earth,  is  chaste  and  Christian  fatherhood.  This 
Jacob,  son  of  the  patriarch,  father  of  the  people  of  God, 
it  is  yourselves,  both  now  and  in  the  years  to  come.  0 
young  men,  and  you  of  riper  years,  who  hear  me,  you 
have  part  in  the  vocation  of  Israel ;  you  have  a  great 
race  to  build  up,  which  shall  extend  from  the  south  to 
the  north,  Avhich  shall  invade  the  east  and  the  west, 
which  shall  carry  far  and  wide,  in  its  peaceful  invasions, 
its  civilizing  colonizations,  the  glory  of  France,  the 
glory  of  the  Catholic  Church,  the  glory  of  your  race  and 
of  your  name !  Ah  !  take  that  stone  on  which  you  lean 
your  head,  on  which  you  rest  your  heart,  the  hearth- 
stone of  your  home :  take  it  with  trembling  hand,  and 
say,  "  0  sacred  hearthstone,  for  a  moment,  perhaps,  I 
had  despised  thee,  I  had  counted  thee  a  common  thing ; 
but  no,  the  water  of  holy  baptism,  the  benediction  of 
holy  wedlock,  have  rested  upon  thee ;  and  each  day,  a 
common  faith,  a  common  prayer,  a  household  Christian- 
ity, renew  thy  consecration  !  0  hearthstone  of  my  home, 
rise  from  the  earth,  stand  thou  as  an  altar-stone  before 
the  Lord,  and  thou  shalt  be  called  Bethel,  the  House  of 
God !  On  thee  rest  family  and  country ;  on  thee  the 
very  Church  of  God  shall  rest,  more  firmly  than  on  the 
foundations  of  her  temples! 

*  Gen.  xxviii.  13,  14.  t  Gen.  xxviii.  19. 


THE    KOTEE-DAME    LECTURES. 

ADVENT,    1868. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  CHURCH.* 


LECTURE    FIRST. 

November  29,  1868. 


The  Church  in  its  most  Universal  Aspect. 

[Father  Hy acinthe,  in  liis  exordium,  shows  how  the 
order  of  ideas  folio Aved  from  the  very  outset  of  these  Lec- 
tures, five  years  ago,  has  its  logical  terminus  in  the  sub- 
ject of  which  he  is  to  treat  this  year.  In  contradiction 
of  errors  that  leave  to  God  an  ideal  glory  and  a  nominal 

*  This  geries  of  Lectures  had  been  given,  for  substance,  during  the  Lent  of 
1867,  at  Rome  in  the  church  of  St.  Louis  of  the  French.  At  the  close  of  the 
course,  which  was  attended  by  throngs  of  French,  English,  and  Americans,  the 
preacher  was  received  by  the  Pope  with  the  most  cordial  testimony  of  his  ap- 
proval and  regard. 

The  reports  of  these  Lectures,  which,  like  all  the  discourses  of  Father  Hya- 
cinthe,  though  carefully  studied  as  to  substance,  were  absolutely  extempora- 
neous as  to  language,  are  more  meagre  and  unsatisfactory  than  those  of  the 
courses  of  1866  and  1867.  It  had  been  the  intention  of  the  preacher  to  repro- 
duce these  Lectures  in  full  under  his  own  hand,  and  accordingly  less  care  had 
been  taken  to  secure  verbatim  reports.  But  such  as  they  are,  these  reports, 
the  best  extant,  are  valuable  both  in  themselves,  and  as  containing  the  sequel 
to  the  discourses  on  the  Family  and  the  State,  and  the  prehide  to  the  protest 
of  the  preacher,  which  followed  after  the  interval  of  a  few  months. 


166  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

supremacy  only,  by  denying  liim  a  real  existence  and  a 
conscions  life,  he  had  begun  by  asserting  the  personal 
God — the  God  that  liveth  and  seeth,  as  the  Bible  ex- 
presses it.  But  living  as  we  do  in  an  age  which  is  an 
age  of  thought,  no  doubt,  but  far  less  an  age  of  thought 
than  it  is  an  age  of  action,  it  is  not  for  us  to  linger 
on  these  metaphysical'  heights.  In  the  pending  discus- 
sions the  question  on  which  men  are  divided  is,  in  fact, 
far  less  the  personal  existence  of  God  in  himself  than 
his  personal  sovereignty  over  man  individually  and  in 
society.] 

The  great  question  of  our  times  is  the  kingdom  of 
God.  Is  God  to  reign,  or  man  ? — man,  emancipated 
from  God  by  skeptical  science,  by  "  independent  mo- 
rality," by  society  organized  independently  of  all  influ- 
ences, whether  of  religion  or  of  church  ? — or  God,  find- 
ing in  man  not  a  slave  but  a  subject,  or  rather  a  son 
sharing  in  his  empire  and  sitting  with  him  on  his 
throne  ?  This  question,  which  was  mooted  in  the  times 
of  the  patriarchs  and  the  prophets,  in  the  time  of  Jesus 
Christ,  in  all  times,  in  fact,  presents  itself  more  than 
ever  at  the  present  hour.  Therefore  it  is  that  for  three 
successive  years  we  have  been  putting  this  question  to 
the  individual  and  to  society;  and  the  conscience  of  the 
individual,  the  fireside  of  the  family,  and  the  forum  of 
free  and  prosperous  nations  have  given  back  the  same 
answer :  "  The  Lord  reigneth." 

But,  above  family  and  country,  there  is  a  form  of  so- 
ciety higher  and  broader,  into  which  man  is  received, 
not  to  be  absorbed  by  it  but  to  expand  in  it,  and  which 
is  superadded  to  all  other  forms  of  society,  that  it  may 
help  them  all  in  realizing  the  kingdom  of  God.  It  is 
the  direct  and  sovereign  instrument  of  this  kingdom. 
This  society  is  the  Church. 


THE   CHUECH   UNIVEESAL.  167 

Kot  without  profound  emotion  do  I  approach  a  sub- 
ject like  this,  amid  the  excitement  of  the  mind  of  Eu- 
rope, which  is  intent,  at  this  moment,  rather  on  reli- 
gious than  on  political  questions.  I  approach  it,  how- 
ever, not  by  that  side  which  irritates  and  divides  the 
minds  of  men — by  considering  the  external  constitution 
of  the  Church  and  its  relations  to  the  ^tate ;  I  come  at 
once  to  the  innermost  seat  of  life,  a  region  at  the  same 
time  most  divine  and  most  human,  in  wdiich,  awaiting 
God's  appointed  time,  lie  the  fruitful  and  peaceful  solu- 
tions of  the  future. 

My  Lord  Archbishop,  having  to  speak  of  the  Church 
that  you  represent  in  the  midst  of  us,  permit  me  to  sa- 
lute, in  the  episcopate  with  which  you  are  invested,  its 
most  elevated  order;  in  the  throne  of  Saint  Denis,  upon 
which  you  sit,  one  of  the  most  constantly  illustrious  and 
most  justly  influential  sees  of  Christendom ;  in  your  per- 
son, finally,  that  best  of  all  dignities — the  dignity  of  con- 
duct and  of  character. 

Let  us  proceed,  now,  to  consider  the  Church  succes- 
sively as  a  visible  society,  and  as  an  invisible  society ; 
or  to  use  the  language  of  theologians,  let  me  speak,  first, 
of  the  body,  second,  of  the  soul  of  the  Church.  Thence 
we  derive  the  complete  notion  of  the  Church  in  its  most 
universal  aspect. 

That  wdiich  strikes  us,  at  first  glance,  in  the  Church 
is  its  hierarchy,  "beautiful  and  terrible  as  an  army  with 
banners."*  The  Church  should  not,  how^ever,  be  con- 
founded, as  it  too  often  is,  with  the  clergy  in  general,  or 
even  with  the  ej)iscopacy  and  the  papacy.  It  is  always 
a  grave  error  to  confound  society  with  its  government. 
The  family  is  not  the  father,  and,  Louis  XIV.  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding,  the  state  is  not  the  prince. 

*  SoHg  of  Solomon,  vi.  4. 


168  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

Bat  nowhere  else  would  this  confusion  be  so  false  and 
so  fatal  as  in  reference  to  the  Church,  in  which  the  gov- 
ernment is  a  ministry,  not  a  domination.  The  Church 
is  a  fraternity  divinely  constituted  in  the  hierarchy. 
"  Be  not  yf-  called  Kabbi ;  one  is  your  master,  and  all 
ye  are  b-  i:hren — one  is  your  Father,  which  is  in 
heaven."*  The  Church,  say  the  Scriptures  agatu,  is  a 
body,  "  the  body  of  Christ."t  The  life  is  not  in  the 
head  alone,  it  is  in  all  the  members.  Let  not  the  laity, 
then,  lose  interest  in  the  Church,  as  an  institution  for- 
eign to  them,  one  from  which  they  can,  at  most,  ex- 
perience the  remote  results.  Together  with  the  hier- 
archy, they  themselves  are  the  Church. 

The  Church,  then,  must  be  understood  as  the  whole 
body  of  religious  society,  believers  and  pastors  together ; 
or,  to  return  to  Saint  Paul's  comparison,  the  members 
with  the  head.  In  the  present  age  of  the  world  this  so- 
ciety has  a  determinate  form,  and  its  proper  name — the 
Roman  Catholic  Church.  But  although  of  divine  ori- 
gin and  definitively  instituted,  this  form  is  not  the  only 
one  that  the  Church  has  borne.  Before  being  Catliolic, 
in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word,  it  was  patriarchal  and 
Mosaic.  It  is  important,  then,  since  we  are  contempla- 
ting the  Church  in  its  most  universal  aspect,  not  to  con- 
found it  with  any  of  its  forms,  not  even  with  its  present 
form,  the  most  perfect  of  all,  and  henceforth  unchange- 
able. The  Church  does  not  date  from  the  apostles  but 
from  tko  patriarchs;  its  cradle  is  not  in  the  "upper 
chambo-, '  but  in  Eden  ;  and  as  Saint  Epiphanius  hath 
said  (and  therein  he  does  but  echo  the  voice  of  all  tra- 
dition), "the  Catholic  Church  is  the  beginning  of  all 
things." 

The  Catholic  Church,  considered  as  a  visible  organi- 

*  Matthew,  xxiii.  8, 9.  1 1  Corinthians,  xii.  27. 


THE  CHURCH  UNIVERSAL.  169 

zation  may  be  defined,  tlieu,  as  "  that  universal  fellow- 
ship in  which  the  true  God  has  always  been  known  and 
worshipped,  and  the  only  mediator,  Jesus  Christ,  prom- 
ised or  given,  looked  for  or  possessed;  having  "one 
God,  and  one  mediator  between  God  and  man,  the  man 
Christ  Jesus."* 

[Father  Hyacinthe  takes  up,  in  reverse  order,  these 
three  elements — universal  fellowship,  the  living  God, 
the  only  Mediator. 

He  shows  us  the  living  God — that  is,  the  one  only  and 
personal  God,  always  known  and  adored  on  earth  ; — the 
one  God,  in  oj^position  to  the  gross  plurality  of  polythe- 
ism ;  the  personal  God,  in  opposition  to  the  cold  and 
unconscious  abstraction  of  philosophy.  "I  live,  saitli 
the  Lord."f  He  adverts,  in  the  course  of  his  argument, 
to  the  positivist  theory,  which  represents  mankind  as 
beginning,  in  its  religious  life,  with  fetichism,  and 
making  its  way  gradually  through  polytheism  to  mono- 
theism and  at  last  to  the  positive  philosophy,  and  he  re- 
futes it  by  the  incontrovertible  fact  of  the  monotheism 
of  the  Bible.] 

Next  comes  the  One  Mediator,  the  expectation  and 
"desire"  (under  divers  names  and  in  divers  forms)  "of 
all  nations,"^;  as  all  systems  of  worship  bear  witness; 
but  especially,  and  in  a  form  so  precise  that  it  is,  as  it 
were,  his  prophetic  portrait  and  anticipated  history,  the 
expectation  and  desire  of  that  chosen  family,  and  at  a 
later  period  of  that  favored  people,  who  preserved  intact 
the  notion  of  the  true  God. 

Having  but  one  God  and  one  Mediator,  the  Church 
also  knows  but  one  people  of  God.  Whilst  everywhere 
else  the  unity  of  our  race  is  forgotten  or  denied,  the  old 
Hebrew  scripture  alone  refers  to  one  primitive  pair  the 

*  1  Timothy,  ii.  5.  t  Ezekiel,  xxxiii.  11.  %  Haggai,  ii.  7. 

8 


170  DISCOURSES  or  father  hyacinthe. 

r 

diversity  of  races ;  and  despite  the  narrowness  too  ha- 
bitual to  the  mind  and  feelings  of  the  Jews,  they  have 
never  repudiated  this  tradition  of  Genesis,  and  the  char- 
acter of  universality  which  belongs  to  the  religion  that 
flows  from  it.  They  had  in  their  temple  the  Court  of 
the  Gentiles,  whither,  from  all  the  corners  of  the  earth, 
the  worshippers  of  the  true  God  might  come  and  wor- 
ship. Through  all  the  phases  through  w^hich  it  has 
passed,  the  spirit  of  this  religion  has  ever  been  love — 
the  love  of  God  and  the  love  of  man.  For  this  two- 
fold love  is  no  exclusive  characteristic  of  the  Gospel.  In 
that  commandment  which  he  calls  new,  and  which  in- 
deed, in  every  age,  is  new  to  Pharisaism,  Christ  himself 
sums  up  the  law  and  the  prophets — that  is,  the  entire  Old 
Testament — "  On  these  two  hang  all  the  law  and  the 
prophets."* 

I  pause  at  the  end  of  this  first  reflection ;  but,  in 
pausing,  indulge  me.  Gentlemen,  in  a  personal  reminis- 
cence. It  has  been  said:  The  audience  and  the  preacher 
are  brothers.  It  is  true ;  I  have  felt  it  for  four  years. 
There  is  no  reserve  among  brothers,  because  there  is  no 
giving  and  taking  offence  among  them.  The  reminis- 
cence that  comes  to  my  mind  at  this  moment  depicts 
admirably  this  essence  of  the  Church,  the  city  of  God. 

I  was  a  boy  of  seventeen  years,  and,  after  the  manner 
of  that  age,  when  nothing  is  yet  in  blossom,  but  every- 
thing still  shut  up  in  buds  and  leaves,  I  was  wondering, 
in  my  vague  way,  what  it  was  to  love ;  when  God,  who 
watches  over  the  steps  of  the  least  and  humblest  of  his 
children,  led  me  into  a  church  at  one  end  of  my  little 
town,  one  evening  in  Whitsuntide.  They  were  singing, 
at  Vespers,  that  brief  but  beautiful  psalm,  Ecce,  qiiam 
lonum — "  Behold,  how  good  and  how  pleasant  it  is  for 

*  Mattlicw,  xxii.  40. 


THE   CHUECH   UNIVERSAL.  171 

brethren  to  dwell  together  in  unity  !"*  I  remember 
how  I  entered,  boy  as  I  was,  with  all  my  vagueness  of 
thought  and  feeling.  I  was  greeted  by  that  soft  and 
majestic  harmony,  by  all  that  multitude  that  sat  sing- 
ing before  the  tabernacles.  It  seemed  to  me  like  a  voice 
coming  down  from  heaven,  and  the  psalm  said  to  me, 
"  Behold  !  behold,  how  good  and  pleasant  a  thing  it  is 
for  brethren  to  dwell  together  in  unity  !" 

The  psalm  went  on  to  say :  "  It  is  like  the  precious 
ointment  upon  the  head,  that  ran  down  upon  the  beard, 
even  Aaron's  beard,  that  went  down  to  the  skirts  of  his 
garments.  Behold,  it  is  like  the  dew  of  Hermon,  that 
descendeth  upon  the  mountains  of  Zion." 

At  last  the  psalm  ended  with  that  cry  of  the  heart, 
so  piercing  and  so  delightful,  "  For  there" — in  love,  in 
unity,  in  the  fragrance  of  the  ointment,  in  the  freshness 
of  the  dew — "there  hath  the  Lord  commanded  his 
blessing,  even  life  forevermore  !" 

I  know  not  whether  there  were  tears  in  my  eyes,  but 
I  am  certain  that  they  were  streaming  and  overflowing 
in  my  heart !  I  had  understood  not  only  human  love 
in  its  purity,  but  love  in  its  sublimest  realization — the 
fellowship  of  souls  in  God  and  in  Jesus  Christ. 

11.  There  is  no  use  in  attempting  to  disguise  from 
ourselves  the  weighty  objection  that  may  be  urged,  and 
with  which  constant  attempts  are  made  to  disparage 
the  Church :  Your  edifice  is  very  long,  indeed,  since  it 
reaches  back  to  the  beginning  of  the  world ;  but  is  it 
not  somewhat  out  of  proportion,  for  it  is  exceeding 
narrow  ? 

From  the  very  beginning,  as  the  Bible  bears  witness, 
the  division  which  separates  our  race  into  two  hostile 
camps,  the  children  of  God  and  the  children  of  men, 

♦  Psalm  cxxxiii. 


172  DISCOUESES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

as  it  calls  them,*  ran  on  into  the  universal  corruption 
punished  by  the  deluge. 

This  formidable  chastisement  is  soon  succeeded  by 
idolatry,  and  the  city  of  God  is  confined  within  an  ob- 
scure and  despised  corner  of  the  globe  ;  for  Judea  was 
not  more  than  twenty  leagues  in  breadth.  To-day, 
even,  religious  statistics  show  lamentable  results :  out 
of  one  thousaud  millions  of  human  beings,  we  find  139 
millions  of  Catholics,  and,  in  all,  2G0  millions  of  Chris- 
tians. A  discouraging  spectacle,  it  must  be  admitted ; 
especially  after  two  thousand  years  of  Christianity. 

To  begin  with,  we  might  reply  by  pointing  to  the 
hope  of  the  future.  But  even  if  the  future  were  holding 
in  reserve  the  most  ample  compensation,  it  would  not 
affect  either  the  past  or  the  present.  Therefore,  although 
fully  believing  in  the  compensations  of  the  future,  I  do 
not  rest  satisfied  with  them,  either  for  myself  or  for  my 
hearers.  I  feel  that  the  objection  calls  for  a  direct  and 
decisive  answer;  and  this  answer  I  seek  and  find  in 
what  theologians  call  the  soul  of  the  Church.  Hitherto 
we  have  spoken  only  of  the  visible  forms  of  the  Church ; 
we  are  now  about  to  explore  the  invisible  riches  of  its 
prolific  life. 

Just  as  a  large  number  of  those  who  share  in  the 
profession  of  its  faith,  in  the  exercises  of  its  worship, 
in  the  action  of  its  government,  belong,  nevertheless, 
only  to  the  hodi/  of  the  Church,  that  is  to  say,  are  at- 
tached to  it  only  by  external  ties,  so  it  may  be  that  a 
great  number  of  those  who  have  not  this  form  of  life 
are  still,  in  reality,  of  the  Church,  because  they  are 
really  God's  by  the  state  of  their  souls.  The  soul  of 
the  Church  is  the  invisible  fellowship  of  all  the  right- 
eous who  have  faith,  at  least  an  "  implicit  faith,"  in  the 

*  Genesis,  vi.  2. 


THE   CHURCH  UNIVEESAL.  173 

one  God  and  in  the  Redeemer,  and  who,  cleansed  from 
sin  through  the  efficacy  of  tlie  blood  of  Christ,  abide 
in  the  grace  of  God. 

Thus,  beyond  the  boundaries  of  orthodoxy,  vast  and 
mighty  regions  are  held  by  heresy  and  schism.  But, 
in  the  bosom  of  heresy  and  schism  how  many  truly  be- 
lieving and  well-meaning  souls  there  be,  who  are,  in 
reality,  neither  heretical  nor  schismatic  ! 

One  day,  when  Jesus  had  just  expounded  the  great 
commandment  of  love  for  one's  neighbor,  a  Pharisee 
asked  him  :  "  Master,  who  is  my  neighbor  ?"  And  the 
Master — resorting  to  that  teaching  by  parables  of  which 
he  was  so  fond,  whether  for  the  purpose  of  presenting 
invisible  truths  in  a  more  evident  and  palpable  form,  or 
to  escape  the  perfidious  machinations  of  the  scribes  and 
the  Pharisees — the  Master  said  to  him  :  "  A  certain  man 
went  down  from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho,  and  fell  among 
thieves,  which  stripped  him  of  his  raiment,  and  wound- 
ed him,  and  departed,  leaving  him  half  dead.  And  by 
chance  there  came  down  a  certain  priest  that  way."* 

This  priest  was  of  the  body  of  the  Mosaic  Church, 
the  then  visible  Church ;  he  had  orthodoxy,  an  inflexi- 
ble, perhaps  implacable  orthodoxy ;  but,  assuredly,  ac- 
cording to  the  Gospel  narrative,  he  had  not  that  prime 
condition  of  the  true  priest,  that  "  tender  mercy  of  our 
God  whereby  the  Dayspring  from  on  high  hath  visited 
us."f  He  looked  upon  that  man  with  an  unmoved, 
tearless  eye  ;  he  hunted  in  his  casuistry  for  an  excellent 
motive  for  not  stopping,  and  so  he  passed  by. 

After  him  came  a  Levite ;  he  paused  longer,  hesitated 
more  ;  but  he  also  passed  by. 

And  the  next  man  was  a  Samaritan.  The  Samari- 
tans were  the  heretics  and  the  schismatics  of  those  days, 

*  Luke,  X.  23-r.7.  t  Ibid.,  i.  78. 


174  DISCOURSES  or  father  hyacinthe. 

When  the  Jews  had  exhausted  upon  our  liord  the  old 
vocabulary  of  injurious  epithets  ;  when  they  had  told 
him  that  he  was  possessed  with  a  devil,  they  added,  as 
the  climax  of  all  that  triumphant  argument :  You  are 
worse  than  that — you  are  a  Samaritan.  And  the  Lord 
Jesus  answered  them  not ;  he  meekly  suffered  himself 
to  be  classed  with  the  Samaritans,  those  poor,  despised 
heretics.*  Pope  Saint  Gregory  the  Great  has  remarked 
upon  the  fact  that  Jesus  Christ  did  not  deny  that  he 
was  a  Samaritan. 

So,  then,  the  Samaritan  comes  along.  He  sees  the 
wounded  man.  Without  hesitating,  he  sets  him  on  his 
own  beast;  he  brings  him  to  the.  neighboring  inn ;  he 
examines  his  wounds  through  the  tears  of  a  tender 
sympathy ;  he  binds  up  his  wounds  "  with  the  sweetness 
of  oil  and  the  strength  of  wine,"  and  leaves  him  with 
the  host,  saying :  Keep  this  man,  and  take  care  of  him ; 
in  two  days  I  shall  pass  this  way  again,  and  whatsoever 
thou  spendest  I  will  repay  thee. 

"  Which,  now,"  said  the  Master  to  the  doctor  of  the 
law,  "  which  of  these  three  thinkest  thou  was  neighbor 
to  him  that  fell  among  thieves  ?"  And  the  Pharisee, 
confused  and  ashamed,  answered,  "He  that  showed 
mercy  on  him. "  "  Thou  hast  well  said,"  added  the 
Lord ;  "  go  thou  and  do  likewise. " 

That  is  the  soul  of  the  Cburch.  Whoever  has  the 
grace  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  is  not  without  faith,  at 
least,  "implied  faith,"  whoever  has  the  great  spirit  of  the 
Gospel,  its  great,  all-prevailing  charity — the  love  of  God 
and  one's  neighbor — whatever  may  be  his  involuntary 
errors,  he  belongs  to  the  soul  of  the  Church. 

I  hold,  with  all  theologians,  that  whoever  knows 
the  Eoman  Catholic  Church  for  what  it  is — for  a  fact, 

*  John,  vii.  20  ;  viii.  48. 


THE   CHURCH   UNIVERSAL.  175 

divine,  authoritative,  is  bound  to  enter  it.  Yes,  who- 
ever, looking  upon  it,  not,  in  spite  of  one's  self,  by  the 
fault  of  birth  and  education,  through  prejudices  that 
render  it  fatally  odious,  beholds  it  as  a  fact,  divine,  au- 
thoritative, is  bound  to  enter  it.  But  if  it  does  not  de- 
pend upon  the  mind  thus  to  see  it,  so  long  as  there  is 
Jesus  Christ  and  his  love  in  the  heart,  every  such  a 
one  is  my  brother  and  my  sister. 

Now  these  are  not  theories,  they  are  facts.  Have 
we  not  at  our  very  doors,  across  the  Channel,  a  striking 
instance  of  this?  People  demand  facts,  positive  sci- 
ence :  let  us  then  have  positive  science  in  religion ;  let 
us  leave  abstractions  and  come  to  realities. 

There  is  in  England  a  choice  company  of  Protest- 
ant pastors,  admirable  both  for  learning  and  for  virtue, 
who,  after  long  years  of  study,  prayer,  and  hesitation, 
have  entered  the  Eoman  Catholic  Church.  ISTot  one 
of  them  has  acknowledged  any  want  of  good  faith  before 
his  conversion  ;  on  the  contrary,  they  have  all  declared 
their  perfect  sincerity.  I  shall  only  cite  one  of  them 
by  his  illustrious  name.  Obliged  to  defend  himself 
against  the  cliarge  of  hypocrisy,  or  at  least,  of  culpable 
reservations,  he  has  produced  a  book  entitled  Apologia 
pro  Vita  Sua,  a  book  whose  entire  honesty  is  only  equalled 
by  its  soundness  and  its  eloquence — John  Henry  New- 
man, the  first  theologian  and  the  first  writer  of  Catholic 
England !  And  in  this  book  he  was  able  to  write  this 
noble  declaration :   "  /  Jiave  never  sinned  against  light r 

If  that  profound  genius,  that  generous  heart,  that 
man  who  has  awaited,  if  not  the  hoary  hairs  of  age,  at 
least  the  maturity  of  manhood,  before  re-entering  into 
visible  unity — if  that  man  has  not  sinned  against  the 
light,  by  what  right,  ye  unjust  and  violent  men,  would 
you  brand  all  who  live  in  Protestantism  with  the  stigma 


176  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

of  falsehood  and  sin  ?  JSTever,  never  will  I  tolerate  such 
utterances  as  this  !  I  myself  have  but  just  now  returned 
from  the  most  Protestant  of  all  countries — from  Eng- 
land ;  and  I  owe  it  to  the  truth  to  bear  this  testimony — 
that  I  have  found  there,  not  only  great  citizens,  but 
great  Christians.  When  I  clasped  them  by  the  hand, 
when  I  mingled  my  thoughts  with  theirs,  when  I  came 
in  contact  with  them,  soul  to  soul — for  that,  after  all,  is 

the  only  way  to  know  men There  are  barriers, 

you  say.  I  know  it :  there  are  great  gulfs,  if  you  will ; 
but  cannot  faith  remove  mountains?  And  cannot 
charity  fill  up  great  gulfs  ?  Not  violent  discussions,  not 
bitter  controversies  will  re-establish  unity ;  but  charity, 
love,  the  noble  virtues  of  truly  Christian  hearts.  .  . .  Per- 
mit me  then  to  take  by  the  hand,  to  press  to  my  bosom, 
these  Christians,  sincere  in  their  error,  but  sincere  in 
their  love  of  God,  of  Jesus  Christ,  of  men ;  and,  in  that 
embrace,  let  me  take  up  again  my  p)salm,  "  How  good, 
how  pleasant  a  thing  it  is  for  brethren  to  dwell  together," 
if  not  in  the  same  body,  at  least  in  the  same  soul,  in  the 
invisible  unity  of  the  Church  and  of  Jesus  Christ ! 

Even  beyond  the  pale  of  Christianity,  a  like  phenom- 
enon is  not  impossible,  and,  without  wishing  to  define 
precisely  in  what  proportion  it  exists,  it  is  not  presump- 
tuous to  affirm  that  it  does  exist,  if  it  is  true,  as  taught 
by  the  theologians  of  Salamanca,  that  great  school  of 
the  Bare-footed  Carmelites,  that  "  implicit  faith"  in  the 
Redeemer  is  sufficient  for  the  salvation  of  unbelievers. 
In  that  case,  the  place  of  baptism  with  water  is  supplied 
by  the  baptism  of  the  Spirit. 

[After  briefly  indicating  this  consideration — upon 
which  time  does  not  permit  him  to  dwell — Father 
Hyacinthe  closes  this  lecture  by  asking  himself  whether 
he  has  indeed  told  all  the  height,  all  the  breadth,  all  the 


THE   CHURCH   UNIVERSAL.  177 

depth  of  the  temple  and  the  city  of  God.]  The  earth  is 
but  a  point  in  the  immensity  of  heaven,  and  the  race 
of  Adam  is  but  a  petty  tribe  in  the  universal  Church  of 
God  and  his  Christ.  Are  not  tlie  stars  inhabited  by 
beings  analogous  to  ourselves;  and,  if  so,  do  not  these 
beings  form  so  many  Churches  scattered  abroad  through- 
out the  heavens,  but  blended,  in  the  sight  of  God,  into 
a  unity  which  we  cannot  see  ?  Science  does  not  give 
us  the  right  to  say  this;  but  faith  does  not  forbid  our 
thinking  so.  On  the  contrary,  the  psalmist  calls  upon 
the  stars  to  praise  the  Lord,*  and  the  prophet  affirms 
that  "  the  host  of  heaven  worshippeth  him."f 

But  what  need  have  we  of  these  suppositions  ?  Faith 
teaches  us  that  our  Church  upon  earth  is  joined  to  a 
Church  that  was  before  it,  and  is  above  it — the  Church  of 
the  angels.  Doubtless  the  angels  have,  in  the  bosom  of 
God,  a  life  peculiar  to  themselves.  But  they  have  also, 
among  us,  a  mission  in  which  we  are  concerned, — "  sent 
forth  to  minister  to  them  that  shall  be  heirs  of  salva- 
tion."3;  This  world  of  spirits  is  infinitely  more  popu- 
lous than  the  world  of  men.  It  far  more  exceeds  our 
power  of  measurement  than  does  the  universe  of  matter. 

And  even  this  last,  has  it  then  no  place  nor  part  in 
the  Church  ?  Has  not  St.  Paul  declared  that  "  the 
whole  creation  groaneth  and  travaileth  with  pangs  of 
birth?"  But  with  what  is  it  in  labor?  With  "the 
manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God!"§  This  material 
world  is  God's  offspring.  He  created  it  as  well  as  us ; 
and  it  shall  be  joined  with  us  in  the  final  transforma- 
tion that  is  to  give  to  God's  elect  new  heavens  and  a 
new  earth.  "And  I  saw,"  saith  St.  John,  "a  new 
heaven  and  a  nev/  earth.    And  I  saw  the  holy  city,  the 


*  Pa.  cxlviii.  3.       t  Neh.  ix.  6.        t  Heb.  i.  14.       §  Rom.  viii.  19,  22. 

8* 


178  DISCOUESES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

new  JeriiScilem,  descending  out  of  heaven  from  God  as  a 
bride  adorned  for  her  hnsband !"  * 

And  here  I  panse,  my  eyes  fixed  npon  the  coming 
glory  of  the  Church.  I  remember  that  eulogy  which 
the  Bible  pronounces  upon  the  prophet  Isaiah  :  "  By  an 
excellent  spirit  he  beheld  what  should  come  to  pass  at 
the  last,  and  he  comforted  them  that  mourned  in  Zion."t 

We  are  all  mourners  in  Zion ;  and  I  first  of  all.  0 
Zion !  0  Jerusalem !  0  ancient  city  of  God,  of  old  so 
happy!  How  art  thou  left,  exclaims  Isaiah,  as  a  cot- 
tage in  a  vineyard,  where  one  finds  shelter  for  a  mo- 
ment from  the  heat  of  the  day!]; 

Yes,  we  mourn  in  Zion.  "We  w^ep  among  the  ruins 
that  our  enemies  have  made;  and  (why  shall  we  not 
confess  it?)  among  the  ruins  we  have  made  ourselves! 
But  the  "  tender  plant"§  of  the  Lord  is  there.  It  shall 
grow  and  lift  itself  above  the  kingdoms,  above  the  sons 
of  Judah.  This  is  "  that  which  shall  come  to  pass  at 
the  last."  Gaze  upon  it,  0  ye  that  mourn  in  Zion,  gaze 
with  firm  heart  and  fearless  eye,  and  be  ye  comforted! 

*  Kevelatlon,  xxi,  1,  2.  t  Ecclesiasticus,  xlyiii.  24. 

X  Isaiah,  1.  8.  §  leaiah,  liii.  2. 


LECTURE     SECOND. 

December  6,  18G8. 

THE  CHUECH  OF  THE  PATRIARCHS. 

[Father  Hyacikthe  first  points  out  that  the  Church, 
in  its  progress,  has  taken  the  same  course  as  humanity 
itself,  which,  before  embracing  in  its  unity  the  prodi- 
gious diversity  of  peoples,  has  begun  Avith  the  family, 
and  then  passed  into  the  nation.  So,  before  receiving 
its  appropriate  and  definitive  form  in  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church,  religious  society  has  been  successively 
outlined  in  the  patriarchal  Church  and  the  Mosaic 
Church — under  the  form,  first,  of  the  family,  and  then  of 
the  nation.] 

In  Adam  and  in  Noah,  those  two  fathers  of  the  hu- 
man race,  religion  existed,  of  course,  in  the  family  form, 
but  it  was  coextensive  with  the  human  race.  In  Abra- 
ham it  is  restricted  to  a  particular  family,  which  is  sep- 
arated from  others — the  "house  of  Israel."  Idolatry 
had  invaded  the  country  where  Abraham  dwelt,  and 
even  the  family  of  his  own  father.  Then  it  is  that  he 
hears,  in  his  reason  and  conscience,  that  sublime  call, 
coming  from  a  source  higher  than  his  conscience  and 
his  reason,  even  from  God  himself,  which  is  termed  "  the 
vocation  of  Abraham:"  "Get  thee  out  of  thy  country^ 


180  DISCOUESES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

and  from  thy  kindred,  and  from  thy  father's  house,  unto 
a  land  that  I  will  shew  thee." 

Thus,  at  the  foundation  of  the  Church,  this  especial 
work  of  God,  there  is  an  inner  yoice  addressed  to  a 
wandering  shepherd,  a  mystical  contemplator  of  nature ; 
a  man  at  once  profound  and  simple.  Nothing  here  of 
human  reasoning ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  nothing  of 
miracle,  nor  of  scripture,  nor  of  doctrinal  authority. 
All  this  grand  edifice  rests,  on  God's  part,  upon  an  inner 
voice,  and,  on  the  part  of  Abraham,  upon  a  faith  not 
blind  but  yet  obscure.  "  He  went  forth,  not  knowing 
whither  he  went."  The  voice  of  God  cannot  deceive, 
and  when  invested  with  the  conditions  without  which 
it  never  demands  our  assent,  it  is  the  firmest  of  all  foun- 
dations for  our  faith,  our  hopes,  our  sacrifices. 

Now  this  grand  individual  inspiration  has  for  its  ob- 
ject to  restore  the  kingdom  of  God  upon  earth  by 
founding  a  new  family  of  true  worshippers. 

The  object  of  the  Church  in  the  midst  of  the  corrup- 
tion of  the  world,  is  always  one  and  the  same — to  save 
men  by  the  law  of  God;  that  is  to  say,  by  truth  and 
righteousness;  and  toward  this  object  it  has,  from  the 
very  beginning,  laid  out  two  paths  which  always  stand 
open — that  of  the  patriarchs  and  that  of  the  prophets. 

To  the  prophets,  to  the  apostles,  God  says :  Ye  shall 
have  no  wife,  no  child  of  your  flesh  ;  ye  shall  leave  your 
family,  ye  shall  renounce  all  worldly  goods,  and,  what 
is  harder  yet,  all  delights  of  the  heart :  let  the  dead  bury 
their  dead.  In  exchange  ye  shall  have  offspring  of 
your  lips,  a  race  of  spiritual  children,  begotten  of  your 
prayers  and  of  your  words,  and  ye  shall  be  founders  of 
the  kingdom  of  God. 

To  the  patriarchs  and  their  successors,  to  laymen,  to 
fathers,  to  Christian  husbands,  God  says:  And  ye,  too, 


THE   CHURCH   OF  THE   PATRIARCHS.  181 

get  you  forth  out  of  corruption,  get  you  forth  out  of 
idolatry  of  mind  and  heart,  and  be  the  founders  of  a 
race  ;  be  the  fathers  of  children — spiritual  children  in- 
deed, above  all,  but  likcAvise  of  children  of  your  blood 
and  of  your  flesh,  a  posterity  on  which  you  shall  stamp 
your  own  seal,  and  with  it  the  seal  of  the  living  God. 

"With  these  two  vocations,  the  virgin  apostles  of  the 
New  Testament  and  the  prolific  patriarchs  both  of  the 
New  Testament  and  of  the  Old,  the  clergy  and  the  laity, 
the  man  of  the  household  and  the  man  of  the  sanctu- 
ary, joined  closely  hand  in  hand — v/ith  these  two  voca- 
tions, I  say,  the  world  is  to  be  reformed ! 

'No  doubt  great  kings,  great  popular  assemblies  have 
their  uses  in  the  reformations  of  the  world ;  no  doubt 
the  councils  of  legislators  and  the  aspirations  of  the 
masses  are  necessary  ;  great  pontiffs,  great  bishops, 
councils  in  which  God  is  present — all  this  is  useful,  is 
necessary  to  the  moral  and  religious  reformation  of  the 
world ;  but  all  this  will  come  to  nothing,  if  there  is  not, 
by  the  side  of  this  force,  that  other  force,  less  apparent 
but  not  less  fruitful  of  results — the  force  of  husbands 
and  fathers  laying  the  foundations  of  the  Church  in  the 
Home.  Get  thee  out  of  thy  country ;  get  thee  out  of 
thy  corrupted  dwelling ;  get  thee  away  from  past  idola- 
try, and  come  forth  into  that  home  which  I  will  show 
thee ! 

This  Abrahamic  inspiration  of  paternity  in  the  name 
and  for  the  cause  of  God,  handed  down  in  the  patri- 
arch's family,  becomes  there  a  domestic  tradition,  the 
characters  of  which  arrange  themselves  under  three 
main  heads,  the  three  grand  acts  of  human  life :  birth — 
love-^death. 

I.  The  fact  of  birth  is  hallowed  by  the  rite  of  cir- 
cumcision — a  rite  of  immense  interest  by  reason  of  its 


182  DiscouESES  or  father  hyacinthe. 

antiquity  and  of  the  vast  regions  throughout  which  it  has 
been  practised  from  the  earliest  generations — a  rite  both 
human  and  divine,  since  Jesus  Christ  was  subject  to  it. 

But  it  is  not  enough  to  bow  down  before  a  fact,  even 
though  it  be  both  human  and  divine — we  must  en- 
deavor to  understand  it ;  and  in  this  fact  of  circumci- 
sion I  recognize  two  ideas — sei^aration  from  the  rest  of 
mankind,  special  consecration  to  the  true  God. 

1.  Separation  from  the  rest  of  mankind.  This  was 
doubly  necessary,  since  the  point  was  to  establish  a 
family,  and  a  religious  family.  Do  you  think  that  a 
family,  however  strong  its  sympathies,  can  do  otherwise 
than  separate  itself — hold  itself  more  or  less  aloof  from 
other  families?  Were  it  to  lose  its  proper  character, 
its  special  individuality,  it  would  cease  to  be  a  family ; 
and  if  we  should  ever  get  so  far  as  to  disregard  the 
right,  the  necessity  of  a  separation,  an  isolation  between 
families,  we  should  have  at  our  doors,  not  socialism,  but 
communism. 

Separation,  then,  is  necessary.  "Within  the  great 
bonds  of  justice  and  charity,  there  must  be  personal 
character,  jealous  individuality,  distinguishing  the.  race 
from  all  besides.  But  when  the  question  is  how  to  es- 
tablish a  religious  family  in  the  midst  of  intellectual 
and  moral  depravity,  w^hen  the  very  object  of  establish- 
ing this  family  is  that  it  may  be  a  new  ark,  and  a  surer 
ark  than  that  of  Noah,  upon  the  waters  of  this  new 
deluge  then,  most  of  all,  there  must  be  separation. 

Never,  ye  chosen  families,  whoever  ye  may  be,  family 
of  Abraham  of  old.  Christian  French  family  of  our  own 
day,  no,  never,  when  it  becomes  a  duty  to  separate  your- 
selves from  error  and  sin,  while  holding  fast  to  every 
tie  of  justice  and  sympathy,  never  can  ye  build  your 
walls  too  high,  never  can  ye  dig  your  moats  too  deep. 


THE   CHURCH   OF   THE   PATRIARCHS.  183 

"  Be  ye  separate,  my  people ;  go  ye  out  of  the  midst 
of  Babylon  !"* 

And  how  effectually  is  he  separated  by  this  inexor- 
able circumcision — separated  by  the  material  seal  that 
he  bears  in  the  flesh,  by  the  whole  physiognomy  of  his 
being,  both  moral  and  physical ! 

Do  you  eyer  meet  a  Jew  without  recognizing  him  ? 
Do  you  ever  look  with  a  moment's  hesitation  or  doubt 
on  that  exotic  beauty,  at  once  so  sad  and  so  fascina- 
ting— those  deep  eyes,  so  full  of  intelligence  and  pas- 
sion ?  Do  you  ever  hesitate  when  you  encounter  that 
blood,  so  pure,  so  proud,  so  aristocratic  above  all  others, 
which  has  flowed  on  through  tlie  ages  and  through  the 
races,  refusing  to  mingle  with  any  other  ? 

Above  all,  have  you  studied,  you  men  of  thought  and 
of  political  science,  organizers  of  families  and  society, 
have  you  studied  the  original  constitution  of  the  Jevi- 
isli  family?  To-day,  even  under  our  very  eyes,  in 
Europe  and  in  Asia  alike,  the  organization  of  the  Jew- 
ish family  has  survived  the  downfall  of  all  its  external 
supports.  It  had  a  monarchy,  a  political  organization : 
the  political  organization,  the  monarchy,  have  crum- 
bled to  pieces  centuries  ago.  It  had  a  priesthood ;  it 
had  a  religious  synagogue  :  something  of  these  still  re- 
mains, but  their  genealogies  are  lost ;  their  worship  has 
fallen  into  dust. '  They  have  no  more  sacrifices,  nor 
Church,  nor  kingdom,  and  the  Jewish  family,  sua  mole 
stat,  is  standing  by  its  own  strength !  It  finds  within 
itself  the  power  of  preserving  unimpaired,  against  mod- 
ern civilizations  as  well  as  against  mediaeval  barbarisms, 
the  tradition  of  its  blood  and  the  tradition  of  its  God ! 

I  know  that  people  say :  Itjs  the  mark  of  Cain  that 
this  race  wears  on  its  forehead ;   it  is  the  curse  of  Cal- 

*  Jeremiah,  li.  45 ;  2  Corinthians,  vi.  17. 


184  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

vary.  Ah!  I  do  not  deny  the  heinous  crime  of  Cal- 
vary. I  do  not  deny  these  millenniums  of  expiation. 
But  I  know  that  if  this  people  has  said,  "  His  blood  be 
upon  us  and  upon  our  children,"  a  better  and  mightier 
voice  has  said,  "  Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not 
what  they  do !"  And  the  Apostle  Paul,  also,  acknowl- 
edging them  to  be  guilty,  has  declared  that  the  sons 
shall  be  "  beloved  for  the  fathers'  sakes."*  It  is  not  the 
mark  of  Cain,  then,  that  I  behold ;  not  the  immortal- 
ity of  wrath :  it  is  the  immortality  of  love ;  it  is  the 
mark  of  Abraham,  the  great  seal  of  the  patriarchal 
family,  that  God  himself  has  placed  upon  the  foreheads 
of  this  people,  and  which  this  people  preserves  in  spite 
of  itself,  and  in  spite  of  us.  "  My  covenant  shall  be  in 
your  flesh  for  an  everlasting  covenant."  f 

2.  Circumcision  is  not  only  a  sign  of  separation  from 
the  rest  of  mankind,  it  is  also  a  solemn  consecration  to 
the  worship  of  the  true  God.  In  the  moment  when  the 
father,  in  the  presence  of  the  agony  of  childbirth,  that 
agony  of  unequalled  danger  and  distress,  receives  the 
new-born  child  in  his  arms,  without  knowing  whether 
he  receives  it  from  the  hands  of  death  or  of  life,  two 
profound  feelings  take  possession  of  his  soul — the  sense 
of  the  sovereignty  of  God,  and  the  sense  of  the  unwor- 
thiness  of  the  child.  This  child  comes  to  him  from 
God,  to  return  to  God :  it  is  from  God,  and  for  God :  it 
is  a  son  of  God  rather  than  a  son  of  man,  and  yet  it  is 
"a  child  of  wrath !"];  The  words  of  Saint  Paul  attest 
it ;  so  do  these  heartrending  cries,  these  tears  that  have 
not  learned  to  flow,  this  blood  that  is  our  first  garment, 
these  obstinate  struggles  between  life  and  death,  con- 
testing the  possession  of  this  cradle,  which  is  perhaps 

*  Romans,  xi.  28.  t  GeneBi?,  xvii.  13.  %  Epheeianp,  ii.  3. 


THE   CHURCH  OF  THE   PATRIARCHS.  185 

to  be  a  coffin !  The  sequel  confirms  this  sad  testimony. 
Nothing  so  pure  as  the  child's  brow,  except  its  heart. 
And  yet  nothing  so  perverse  as  this  heart !  It  contains, 
without  doubt,  the  germs  of  every  human  virtue,  but 
choked  by  the  more  powerful  germs  of  'every  vice.  If 
this  nature,  fallen  through  original  sin,  is  not  restored 
by  an  education  as  firm  as  it  is  mild,  as  energetic  in  re- 
pression as  it  is  intelligent  in  counsel  and  affectionate 
in  feeling,  this  child  will  be  the  victim  and  the  cause  of 
terrible  disorders. 

The  religion  of  Moloch,  spread  over  Western  Asia  in 
the  age  of  Abraham,  had  preserved,  under  its  horrible 
forms,  these  two  great  truths  which  are  now-a-days  de- 
nied— the  sovereignty  of  God  over  the  child,  and  the 
unworthiness  of  the  child  in  the  sight  of  God.  Hence 
the  atrocious  custom  of  sacrificing  children,  especially 
the  first-born.  Heartless  parents  placed  them  on  the 
red-hot  arms  of  the  brazen  idol,  and  in  a  few  moments 
those  frail  and  delicate  bodies  vanished  in  a  funereal 
smoke.  Abraham  struggled  all  his  life  against  this 
worship  of  death.  In  his  supreme  trial  he  himself  be- 
lieved that  God  had  called  for  this  sacrifice  from  him. 
He  led  his  son  Isaac  to  the  summit  of  Mount  Moriah 
which  is  said  to  be  the  same  as  Calvary,  to  immolate 
him  with  his  own  hand  to  that  God  who  had  given  him 
as  the  tardy  consolation  of  his  old  age,  and  the  sole 
hope  of  his  race.  But  the  angel  of  the  Lord  caught 
his  arm  ready  to  strike,  and  a  voice  from  on  high  said  : 
"  Lay  not  thine  hand  upon  the  lad ;  for  now  I  know 
that  thou  fearest-God,  seeing  that  thou  hast  not  with- 
held thy  son,  thine  only  son,  from  me.  .  .  .  Blessing,  I 
will  bless  thee,  and  multiplying,  I  will  multiply  thy 
seed  as  the  stars  of  the  heaven,  and  as  the  sand  which 
is  upon  the  sea-shore ;  and  in  thy  seed  shall  all  the  na- 


186  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

tions  of  the  earth  be  blessed."*  This  trial  had  for  its 
object  to  strengthen  Abraham  in  a  better  faith,  by  re- 
vealing to  him  that  the  true  sacrifice  is  not  a  sacrifice 
of  death,  but  a  sacrifice  of  life — that  of  the  Messiah, 
who  should  die  only  that  he  might  give  life  to  the  dead, 
and  whose  blood  should  reconcile  with  divine  justice 
not  only  the  seed  of  the  patriarch  but  all  the  nations  of 
the  earth.  The  scanty  drops  of  blood  shed  under  the 
circumcising  knife  of  stone  symbolized  this  sacrifice 
both  in  its  benignity  and  in  its  sternness. 

II.  From  birth,  I  am  brought  at  once  to  death — so 
close  is  the  connection  between  the  cradle  and  the  tomb  ! 
One  act,  however,  separates  these  two  extremes  of  our 
life — the  supreme  act  in  the  order  of  nature !  Between 
the  tomb  and  the  cradle  I  behold  the  nuptial  couch,  and 
I  greet  it  with  those  grand  words  of  the  apostle  Paul : 
"  Let  marriage  be  honorable  in  all  things,  and  the 
marriage-bed  be  undefiled."f  For  love,  holy  love,  forms 
between  this  ascent  of  birth  and  youth  and  this  decliv- 
ity of  old  age  and  death,  the  summit  of  human  exist- 
ence on  earth. 

Of  all  divorces,  the  most  senseless,  the  most  disastrous, 
is  the  divorce  between  the  ideas  of  religion  and  the  ideas 
of  love.  Love — I  am  only  saying  the  same  thing  over, 
I  know ;  but  let  that  pass  ;  I  am  not  aiming  at  rhetor- 
ical art,  but  at  facts,  at  results — love,  in  its  nature,  is 
the  most  religious  of  all  human  feelings ;  it  tends  to- 
ward the  ideal,  the  infinite,  and  if,  since  the  fall,  it 
slides  all  too  easily  down  the  steep  course  of  human 
degradation,  is  not  that  one  reason  the  more  why  the 
religious  man,  and  above  all  the  priest — the  apostle  and 

*  Genesis,  xxii.  12,  17,  18. 

t  Hebrews,  xiii.  4.  The  rendering  "in  all  things"  which  the  original  will 
bear  indifferently  with  the  rendering  "  in  all  persons,''''  is  naturally  preferred  in 
Roman  Catholic  versions.— Tr.  , 


THE   CHURCH   OF  THE   PATEIAECHS.  187 

prophet  of  the  New  Testament — should  reA'ive  and  re- 
store it  by  surrounding  it  with  the  most  stimulating  and 
invigorating  atmospliere  of  the  divine  life  ? 

Yes,  love  and  religion  are  the  indivisible  basis  of  the 
family.  I  make  bold  to  put  the  question,  when  man 
and  wife  have  not  put  God  in  their  love,  when  perhaps 
they  have  not  j^ut  love  in  their  hearts,  what  do  they 
come  for  at  the  foot  of  our  altars  ?  What  use  is  there 
to  them  in  a  benediction,  sacred,  most  assuredly,  in  the 
intention  of  the  Church  that  gives  it,  but  formal,  phari- 
saical,  or  rather  utterly  worldly,  in  the  mind  with  which 
they  receive  it  ?  Does  that  consecrate  marriage  ?  Does 
that  bring  down  God  into  their  hearts  ?  ISTo ;  not  un- 
less their  choice  itself  is  holy,  not  unless  love  itself  is 
there  already.  For  marriage  is  not  the  union  of  two 
names,  two  fortunes,  two  material  beings :  it  is  the 
union  of  two  souls  in  the  immaterial  and  divine  cement 
of  lore.  Yes,  divine,  for  this  cement  would  have  no 
solidity,  but  that  it  had  been  prepared  by  the  hand  of 
God.  And  that  is  what  I  admire  in  the  patriarchs ;  that 
is  what  the  Bible,  in  its  smallest  details,  in  that  book 
which  is  too  little  pondered,  the  book  of  Genesis,  the 
book  for  ail  Christian  families  after  the  Gospel — that  is 
what  the  Bible  teaches  me ;  it  teaches  me  the  religious 
care,  the  moral  and  divine  inspiration  that  i^resided 
over  the  love  of  the  patriarchs  and  the  marriage  of  their 
children. 

These  unions  have  a  twofold  character — purity  and 
fecundity. 

1.  First,  2^urity.  This  was  necessary  in  the  wives  of 
the  patriarchs,  in  the  women  who  were  to  be  the  wives 
of  the  saints,  the  mothers  of  the  chosen  people,  the  an- 
cestresses  of  the  Son  of  God  himself.  Health,  beauty — 
above   all,   that   moral   beauty  which   shines  through 


188  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

physical  bciiuty,  purifying  and  ennobling  it, — virtue  in 
the  liabitual  exercises  of  the  will,  religion  in  the  habit- 
ual exercises  of  tlie  soul,  that  is  what  was  needed  in 
Sarah,  in  Rebecca,  in  Eachel,  in  all  those  strong  and 
tender  women  "  which  did  build  the  house  of  Israel/'* 
So,  neither  distance,  nor  the  difficulties  of  the  journey 
deterred  the  patriarchs  when  they  wished  to  form  an 
alliance  for  themselves  or  for  their  sons.  They  held  in 
horror  the  fair  but  lewd  daughters  of  Canaan,  among 
whom  they  lived,  and  they  sent  their  servants,  or  went 
themselves,  to  those  high  table-lands  of  Asia,  where  the 
family  of  their  fathers  had  continued  to  dwell  in  their 
primeval  purity.  The  marriage  of  Isaac  and  Rebecca 
affords  a  memorable  instance,  the  spirit  of  which  is  sum- 
med up  in  this  final  passage  of  that  touching  history : 
"  And  Isaac  brought  her  into  his  mother  Sarah's  tent, 
and  took  Eebekah  and  she  became  his  wife ;  and  he 
loved  her :  and  so  Isaac  was  comforted  after  his  mother's 
death."t 

Such  were  these  families.  Monogamy  was  already 
their  prevailing  spirit,  and  thus  it  is  that  amongst  them 
love  had  a  purity,  the  wife  a  dignity,  not  to  be  found 
elsewhere  in  all  antiquity,  at  least  in  the  same  degree. 

Polygamy  makes  its  appearance  among  them,  it  is 
true;  but  it  is  very  much  restricted,  and  surrounded  by 
all  the  correctives  of  morality  and  religion.  It  is  only 
accidental.  It  is  not  mentioned  in  connection  with 
Isaac,  and  if  Abraham  and  Jacob  resort  to  it,  that  is 
only  to  compensate  for  the  absolute  or  relative  sterility 
of  the  principal  wife;  in  the  quaint  and  striking  lan- 
guage of  Rachel,  "  that  she  may  bear  upon  my  knees, 
and  that  I  may  also  have  children  by  her."]; 

2.  The  mission  of  these  families  and  their  power  lie, 

*  Ruth,  iv.  11.  t  Geneeie.  xxiv.  GT.  $  Genesis,  sxx.  3. 


THE   CHURCH   OF  THE   PATRIARCHS.  189 

in  fact,  in  their  fecundity.  Each  of  these  men  wislies 
to  be  the  father,  each  of  these  women  the  mother,  not 
of  a  son  but  of  a  people.  The  splendid  vision  of  Abra- 
ham, contemplating  in  the  innumerable  company  of 
the  stars  the  prophecy  of  his  posterity,  remains  their 
ideal. 

God  had  said  to  Abraham:  "Sarah  shall  be  the 
mother  of  nations  I"*  Mark  this,  Gentlemen.  Xot  of 
a  man,  not  of  a  narrow  family,  but  the  motlier  of  a 
people,  "  a  great  people."  And  does  not  history  show 
us,  in  fact,  that  two  great  nations  have  issued  from  the 
loins  of  the  old  man, — by  Sarah,  Isaac  and  the  Jews — 
by  Hagar,  Ishmael  and  the  Arabs ;  two  nations,  brothers 
and  yet  enemies?  The  one  has  covered  the  world  with 
the  prolific  fragments  of  its  exiles  and  captivities ;  the 
other  with  the  proud,  invading  waves  of  its  conquests. 
And  each  has  seemed  to  emulate  the  other  in  contribu- 
ting largely  to  the  civilization  of  the  globe. 

Yes,  the  sons  of  Isaac  and  the  sons  of  Ishmael !  I 
know  that  allowances,  vast  allowances,  must  be  made; 
but  permit  me  to  be  just. 

France  is  mourning — she  will  be  mourning  to-mor- 
row— by  the  side  of  a  grave  forever  illustrious,  for  that 
incomparable  orator  who  ever  defended  the  traditions 
of  the  past  without  repudiating  either  the  grandeurs  of 
the  present  or  those  of  the  future.  One  day,  when  the 
men  and  the  deeds  of  the  revolution  were  attacked  in 
his  presence,  he  uttered  that  exclamation  which  ad- 
mirably depicts  the  sublime  impartiality  of  his  soul: 
"I  shall  never  forget  that  the  Convention  saved  my 
country !"  For  myself.  Gentlemen,  I  shall  not  be  sub- 
lime, but  I  shall  be  impartial,  and  say :  I  cannot  forget 
that  Mohammedanism,  despite  its  errors  and  its  deeds 

*  Geneeis,  xvii.  16. 


190  DISCOURSES   OF   FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

of  violence,  enthrones,  this  day,  the  idea,  more  than  the 
idea,  the  genuine  sentiment  of  the  unity  of  God,  over 
one  hundred  millions  of  my  kind.  From  the  shores  of 
Morocco  to  the  foot  of  the  Himalayas,  from  the  recesses 
of  Yemen  to  tlie  centre  of  Europe,  one  hundred  mill- 
ions of  men  bear  witness,  in  the  teeth  of  paganism,  to 
the  unity  of  God !  And  it  is  the  sons  of  Ishmael  who 
have  done  this. 

I  make  no  recriminations  against  the  unjust  detract- 
ors of  the  Mohammedan  nations.  You  blame  these 
peoples,  and  you  are  right,  but  do  not  blame  them  be- 
yond measure ;  blame  first  the  decay  of  Christian  civili- 
zation. Physician,  heal  thyself  !  For  we  sons  of  the 
Crusaders,  heirs  of  Christianity,  what  have  we  done 
with  the  traditions  of  Sarah  and  Kachel  ?  and  has  the 
blessing  of  a  numerous  family  been  changed  for  us  into 
a  curse  ? 

I  shall  not  dwell  upon  this  point.  I  merely  point  out 
and  denounce  that  covenant  of  w^hich  the  prophet 
spoke,  that  covenant  made  with  death  by  surrendering 
to  him  the  sources  of  life!  "Your  covenant  with 
death  shall  be  disannulled,  and  your  agreement  wdth 
hell  shall  not  stand."*  I  point  out  and  denounce,  with 
hand  and  heart  and  soul,  that  constitution  of  the  fam- 
ily which  tends  to  introduce  itself  even  into  the  inter- 
nal arrangements  of  the  house,  a  superb  palace,  a  palace 
of  pride  and  voluptuousness,  that  can  never  allow  room 
enough  for  oriental  luxury,  and  has  no  place  for  a 
cradle ! 

III.  After  the  woe  of  that  people  which  cuts  itself  off 
from  the  future  by  sacrificing  its  cradles,  I  know  none 
greater  than  that  of  the  people  which  cuts  itself  off 
from  the  past  by  removing  its  graves.     Blind  j)eople ! — 

*  Isaiah,  xxviii.  18. 


THE   CHURCH   OP   THE   PATRIAKCHS.  191 

that  has  lost  the  twofold  faith  in  which  the  greatness 
of  our  race  resides,  that  it  may  shut  itself  up  in  that 
circle  of  narrow  selfishness  and  barren  voluptuousness, 
which  it  calls  the  present !  .  .  .  . 

[In  this  manner  the  speaker  approaches  the  subject 
of  the  consecration  given  to  death  by  the  care  of  fu- 
neral rites.  He  shows  that  the  family  spirit  strives 
after  fellowship  in  death,  by  means  of  a  common  place 
of  burial. 

He  show^s  how  this  spirit  animated  the  patriarchs,  and 
wrought  in  them  the  more  vigorously  from  the  fact  that 
death,  presenting  itself  to  the  mind  of  the  ancients  un- 
der the  image  of  a  sleep,  invested  the  sepulchre  with  a 
higher  importance. 

He  refutes,  in  passing,  the  refined  spiritualism  which, 
no  less  than  the  coarsest  materialism,  leads  to  the  neg- 
lect of  the  grave.  The  body  is  the  casket,  the  instru- 
ment, the  companion,  of  the  soul ;  it  is  a  part  of  im- 
mortal man ;  it  claims  our  respect  for  the  sake  of  the 
recollections  of  the  past,  and  of  the  hopes  for  the  fu- 
ture. Let  it  rest,  then,  in  an  honored  and  cherished 
grave,  guarded  by  the  memory  of  life,  and  the  expecta- 
tion of  the  Insurrection ! 

But  not  only  is  Abraham's  sepulchre  desired  by  all 
the  prophets  as  the  place  where  they  shall  lay  their 
bones.  Abraham's  bosom  is  to  the  Jewish  mind  the  glo- 
rious and  living  sepulture  of  the  just.  Thither,  as 
Christ  himself  declared,  Lazarus  was  borne  by  angels 
to  receive  the  recompense  of  his  reward,  and  was  be- 
held "  afar  off,  in  Abraham's  bosom." 

This,  in  brief,  is  the  thought  with  which  the  dis- 
course concluded.] 


LECTURE    THIRD 
December  13,  186S. 


THE   CHUECH   IN   THE   FAMILY. 

"  JBut  I  tvoidd  have  you  hnoiv  that  the  head  of  every 
man  is  Christ ;  and  the  head  of  the  20oman  is  the  man; 
a7id  the  head  of  Christ  is  God^^ 

What  I  have  to  say  to  you  is  nothing  more  than  a 
comment  on  these  brief  but  profound  words;  and 
therefore  I  invoke  them  at  the  very  outset  of  my  talk 
with  you. 

The  Church  of  the  patriarchs  was  not  wholly  buried 
with  them  in  the  cave  of  Mamre.  It  was  its  own  sur- 
vivor in  the  vigorous  organization  of  the  Jewish  family 
withiu  the  national  Mosaic  church. 

It  survives  in  the  still  higher  constitution  of  the 
Christian  family  in  the  bosom  of  the  nniversal  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ.  For  not  in  vain  has  the  Lord  said, 
"  I  am  the  God  of  Abraham,  of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob ; 
this  is  my  name  forever."  The  supreme  Artist,  in  fact, 
does  not  destroy  the  studies  with  which  he  preludes  his 
works,  but  perfects  them,  and  incorporates  them  in  his 
masterpiece  as  integral  parts.  This  masterpiece  is  the 
Catholic  Church,  the  Church  of  all  mankind  united  in 
God  by  Christ.    In  this  final  form  are  to  be  found,  sub- 

*  1  Corinthians,  xi.  3. 


THE   CHURCH   IN  THE   FAMILY.  193 

ordinated,  but  not  impaired  or  crushed,  the  preparatory 
forms  of  the  patriarchal  Church  and  the  Mosaic 
Church ;  the  domestic  and  the  national  Churches  are 
still  living  in  the  bosom  of  the  grand  and  perfect  cath- 
olic unity. 

The  Church  of  the  patriarchs  is  still  the  subject, 
then,  that  is  proposed  for  to-day's  discussion.  Only, 
instead  of  studying  it  in  its  remote  past,  we  will  take 
it  up  at  the  very  fireside  of  the  Christian  family.  We 
have  already,  for  one  year,  spoken  of  the  Family;  but 
we  have  not  yet  considered  it  in  its  special  relations  to 
the  priesthood  of  the  Catholic  Church.  Moreover, 
there  need  be  no  fear  of  repetition  in  such  a  subject. 
The  great  concern,  both  of  the  speaker  and  of  his  hearers, 
is  not  to  bring  out  a  discourse  or  a  volume  of  artistic 
symmetr}^,  it  is  to  bring  out  facts.  We  proceed,  then, 
to  consider  the  family  in  its  domestic  j^Tiestliood,  and 
this  domestic  priesthood  m  its  relations  with  the  hie- 
rarchical priesthood  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

I.  It  is  obvious  in  how  many  invidious  and  ridiculous 
ways  this  word  2^'^^^^^^^^ood,  in  our  times,  has  been  abused. 
To  apply  this  word  to  the  family  is  not  to  add  anothei 
to  the  list  of  these  profanations.  Eather,  we  are  true 
to  tradition  and  to  the  most  exact  theology,  when  we 
assert  that  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word  there  is  a 
priesthood  in  the  Christian  family. 

In  baptism,  every  Christian  is  invested  with  a  priest 
hood,  by  virtue  of  the  character  which  this  sacrament 
confers;  to  wit,  a  participation  in  the  priesthood  of 
Jesus  Christ.  This  sacerdotal  character  grows  in  Con- 
firmation. It  achieves  its  full  development  in  the  sacra- 
ment of  Orders. 

St.  Irenseus,  Tertullian,  Origen,  and  many  other  Fa- 
thers speak  of  this  first  degree  of  priesthood  common 

9 


194  DISCOURSES   OP   FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

to  all  Christians.  The  Greek  Church  has  maintained, 
and  still  professes  this  doctrine,  distinguishing  two 
kinds  of  priesthood  :  one  spiritual  or  7nystical,  which  is 
the  common  lot  of  all  orthodox  Christians ;  the  other 
sacramental,  peculiar  to  those  who  have  received  the 
sacrament  of  ordination.  The  Council  of  Trent  makes 
the  same  distinction  in  different  terms.  It  admits  an 
inward  priesthood,  which  all  should  exercise,  alongside 
of  the  outward  priesthood,  the  privilege  of  a  few.  So 
that  the  heretics  of  the  sixth  century  did  not  err  in 
teaching  that  every  Christian  is  a  priest,  but  only  in  con- 
founding this  priesthood  with  the  hierarchical  priest- 
hood, or  in  reducing  the  latter  to  the  proportions  of  the 
former.  Is  this  not  the  meaning  of  those  words  of  the 
Apocalypse :  Christ  "  hath  made  us  kings  and  priests 
unto  God  and  his  Father  ?"* 

And  what  are  those  "  spiritual  sacrifices"  of  which  St. 
Peter  speaks,f  if  not  the  sacrifice  answering  to  this 
priesthood  ?  The  Christian  has  even  an  active  part  in 
the  public  sacrifice  of  the  Altar.  "Pray,"  says  the 
priest  to  the  faithful,  "  pray,  my  brethren,  that  my  sac- 
rifice, w^hich  is  also  yours,  may  be  acceptable  to  God,  the 
Father  Almighty."  Orate,  fratres,  ut  meum  ac  vestrum 
sam^ijiciiwi  acceptahile  fiat  apud  Deum  Patrem  o7nnipo- 
tentem. 

Now  this  lay  priesthood  reaches  its  perfect  fulness 
only  in  the  Christian  who  has  become  a  husband  and 
father.  From  being  inward  and  private,  it  then  be- 
comes social,  exerting  upon  domestic  society,  so  far  as 
this  society  is  Christian,  an  action  of  its  own,  although 
subordinate  to  the  action  of  the  hierarchical  priesthood. 

This  domestic  priesthood  has,  in  fact,  three  chief 
functions,  which  correspond  to  those  of  the  hierarchical 

*  EevelatioD,  i.  6.  t  Peter,  ii.  5. 


THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  FAMILY.        195 

priesthood — religious  and  moral  instruction,  the  govern- 
ment of  consciences,  the  exercise  of  worship. 

1.  Religious  instruction. — In  the  lectures  on  The 
Family,  it  has  already  been  shown  how  the  authority  to 
teach  is,  in  the  father,  a  natural  authority,  derived  im- 
mediately from  the  fact  of  fatherhood. 

But  when,  in  the  Christian  who  has  been  consecrated 
in  his  whole  being  by  baptism,  paternity  is  at  once 
raised  into  the  supernatural  order  by  the  sacrament  of 
marriage,  this  authority  of  instruction  becomes  super- 
natural in  him,  and  constitutes  in  the  Church  a  sacred 
function. 

Obligatory  upon  the  father  toward  his  children  in  the 
patriarchal  family,  by  virtue  of  a  positive  decree  of 
God,*  the  exercise  of  this  authority  is  still  more  obliga- 
tory in  the  Christian  family,  in  which  Jesus  Christ  has 
not  only  not  abolished  it,  but  has  confirmed  it. 

It  is  principally  the  right  and  the  duty  of  the  father. 
For,  although  the  mother  is  the  first  to  reveal  the  good 
God  to  the  fruit  of  her  womb  and  of  her  heart,  still  it 
is  the  office  of  the  father  to  perfect  and  confirm  this 
revelation  in  the  soul  of  his  son,  who  comes  down  from 
the  mother's  lap  and  stands  by  his  side  to  be  initiated 
by  him  into  life. 

So  little  does  the  principal  part  in  religious  instruc- 
tion devolve  upon  the  mother,  that  she  herself  is  obliged 
to  resort  to  the  lessons  of  her  husband.  This  is  the 
teaching  of  St.  Paul.  He  would  have  the  woman,  if 
she  has  not  understood  the  public  instruction  of  the 
priest  in  the  temple,  to  question  her  husband  in  the 
privacy  of  home,  and  to  be  a  silent  learner  in  his 
school.f  The  husband,  then,  according  to  the  apostle, 
is  the  private,  home-interpreter  of  the  public  instruc- 

*  Genesis,  xviii.  19.  1 1  Corinthians,  xiv.  35. 


196  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

tion  given  by  the  hierarchical  priest.  That  does  not 
mean  that  he  is  free  to  alter  the  instruction  of  the 
Church ;  he  is  no  more  free  to  do  that  than  the  Church 
is  free  to  change  revelation.  But  because  all  outward 
instruction  needs  to  be  interpreted — the  Scriptures  and 
tradition  being  interpreted  by  the  Church,  the  word 
being  interpreted  by  the  priest  in  its  name — the  words 
of  the  priest,  also,  will  be  interpreted  by  the  father  of 
the  family,  and  his  words,  finally,  by  the  Christian  con- 
science; for  the  comprehension  of  religious  truth  de- 
pends, in  the  last  analysis,  upon  the  good  or  evil  dis- 
position of  the  conscience  and  what  theology  so  aptly 
terms  the  light  of  grace,  the  light  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Hence  nothing  is  more  futile,  be  it  said  in  passing,  than 
the  hope  with  which  narrow  minds  flatter  themselves, 
of  creating  within  the  Church,  by  an  exaggeration  of 
doctrinal  authority,  a  sort  of  vulgar  precision,  a  sort  of 
tyrannical  uniformity,  which  are  no  part  of  God's  de- 
signs toward  the  soul  of  man. 

Such,  then,  is  the  legitimate  share,  both  large  and 
wise,  that  the  Church  gives,  within  its  own  fold,  to  lay- 
instruction. 

2.  Tlie  government  of  consciences. — It  is  not  only 
the  instruction  of  the  children  that  is  given  into  the 
hands  of  the  parents,  and  especially  into  the  hands  of 
the  father  ;  it  is  their  education,  the  practical  formation 
of  their  will,  their  heart,  their  conscience,  their  entire 
soul ;  their  preparation  from  early  life  for  the  choice  of 
a  profession ;  the  settlement  of  that  vital  affair,  their 
marriage ;  in  a  word,  their  moral  and  religious  guidance, 
immediate  and  supreme,  during  the  early  stages  of  their 
life,  and,  in  all  its  subsequent  course,  indirect  but  al- 
ways efficient.  None  of  these  things  would  be  possible, 
if  the  conscience  of  the  children  did  not  unfold  itself  to 


THE   CHURCH   IN  THE   FAMILY.  197 

the  parents,  especially  to  the  father.  Yes,  the  father 
must  be  the  first  guide,  and  to  a  certain  extent,  the  first 
confessor  of  his  children. 

Still  more.  A  certain  knowledge  and  guidance  of  the 
conscience  of  the  wife  herself  falls  to  the  husband.  The 
order  of  nature  demands  it,  and  the  order  of  grace. 
The  order  of  nature,  because  of  the  difierence  of  age 
and  of  sex.  In  the  early  stages,  at  least,  of  wedded  life, 
the  wife  is  as  much  of  a  child  as  of  a  companion,  with 
respect  to  her  husband.  He  has  received  her,  young, 
ignorant  of  what  aw^aits  her  in  life,  lacking  in  the  teach- 
ings of  an  experience  which  she  has  not  yet  undergone 
personally,  and  which  she  has  not  even  witnessed  in 
others.  This  child,  in  order  that  she  may  become 
indeed  a  wife,  must  have  a  higher  education  that  shall 
make  her  equal  to  her  new  position.  The  type  of  this 
education  is  to  be  met  in  the  primeval  fact  related  to  us 
in  Genesis — Eve  born  of  Adam.  The  wife  should  always 
be  born  of  the  heart  of  her  husband,  should  know  all  its 
secrets,  and  share  all  its  emotions  aiid  feelings.  They 
should  be  one,  not  only  in  the  outward  intercourse  of 
life,  but  in  the  close  community  of  all  human  and  divine 
possessions.  They  should  vibrate  in  unison  in  the 
presence  of  those  three  great  and  increasing  objects  of 
affection — the  cradle  of  infancy,  the  love  of  married 
life,  the  tomb  of  age.  And  as  they  should  view  the 
things  of  earth  with  an  undivided  glance  and  an  undi- 
vided heart,  so  they  should  soar  toward  God  with  one 
common  aspiration  and  in  one  common  flight.  The 
law  of  sex  perpetuates  what  was  first  rendered  necessary 
by  difference  of  age ;  and  this  order,  established  by 
nature,  is  consecrated  by  grace. 

The  institution  of  Christian  marriage,  in  fact,  places 
the  wife  in  the  same  dependence  toward  her  husband 


198  DISCOURSES   OF   FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

that  tlie  Churcli  is  in  toward  Jesus  Christ.  "  There- 
fore/' says  St.  Paulj  "  as  the  Church  is  subject  unto 
Christ,  so  let  the  wives  be  to  their  own  husbands  in 
everything."*  This  subordination  extends  to  the  affairs 
of  the  soul,  since,  on  the  one  hand,  it  is  universal,  "  in 
ever  I) tiling ^^  and,  on  the  other,  it  finds  its  model  in  the 
very  union  between  Christ  and  the  Church,  "«s  tlie 
Churcli  is  subject  unto  Christ."  And  this  is  so  true, 
that,  in  accordance  with  the  general  teachings  of  theo- 
logians, the  husband  has  the  power  to  invalidate,  in  the 
forum  of  conscience,  vows  made  by  the  wife,  after  mar- 
riage, without  his  consent,  when  these  vows  affect,  in 
any  way  whatsoever,  the  conjugal  relation.  Some  theo- 
logians of  great  weight  and  authority  even  go  so  far  as 
to  free  the  marital  power  from  this  limitation,  and  to 
subordinate  to  it  all  vows  made  by  the  wife  without  the 
husband's  consent  after  marriage,  whatever  may  be  their 
object.  They  only  limit  this  sovereign  power  by  the 
general  condition  requisite  to  the  validity  of  dispensa- 
tions— to  wit,  that  they  should  have  a  reasonable  motive ; 
but  of  this  motive  the  husband  alone  is  judge. 

Doubtless,  in  behalf  of  the  children,  and  still  more  so 
in  behalf  of  the  wife,  we  must  make  important  reserva- 
tions touching  the  rightful  independence  of  the  human 
conscience,  and  especially  of  the  Christian  conscience. 
For  if  it  is  true  that  there  is  a  government  of  the  con- 
science by  outward  authority,  it  is  no  less  true  that 
there  is  a  self-government  of  the  conscience  under  the 
eye  and  the  hand  of  God,  who  alone  sees  into  the  depths 
of  the  heart,  according  to  that  fine  expression  of  Saint 
Thomas :  Deus  solus  illaMtur  animce.  But  these  reser- 
vations apart,  we  should  not  hesitate  to  conclude,  not 
only  from  the  temporal  point  of  view,  but  also  and 

*  Ephesians,  v.  24. 


THE   CHURCH   IN   THE   FAMILY.  199 

especially  from  the  spiritual  point  of  view,  that  the 
father  of  the  family  is  the  head  of  his  house,  the  king 
and  the  priest  in  one.  "I  would  have  you  know,  that 
the  head  of  every  man  is  Christ ;  and  the  head  of  the 
woman  is  the  man,  and  the  head  of  Christ  is  God." 

3.  The  exercises  of  wGrsMp. — Private  worship  is  neces- 
sary. "  When  thou  prayest,  enter  into  thy  closet ;  and 
when  thou  hast  shut  the  door,  pray  to  thy  Father  which 
is  in  secret."*  Public  worship,  also,  is  necessary:  "  not 
forsaking  the  assembling  of  ourselves  together."f  But 
the  two,  even  when  scrupulously  observed,  do  not  suf- 
fice: there  must  be  another — family  worship,  indicated 
by  these  words,  so  often  employed  by  Saint  Paul :  "  the 
church  that  is  in  the  house."];  This  worship  is  rendered 
in  the  peasant's  hut  of  schismatic  Eussia,  by  the  worship 
of  holy  images ;  and  in  the  heart  of  Protestantism,  in 
the  aristocratic  families  of  England,  by  family  prayers. 
Family  prayers,  which  have  almost  disappeared  from 
among  our  French  customs,  especially  evening  prayers, 
are,  in  fact,  the  solemn  act  of  domestic  w^orship.  It  is 
not  the  mother  but  the  father  who  presides,  who  is  the 
high  priest.  What  religious  ascendency  this  example 
gives  over  the  wife,  over  the  children,  over  the  servants 
themselves,  who  are  not  strangers  nor  slaves,  but  adopted 
members  of  the  family,  admitted  to  a  share  in  its  wor- 
ship as  well  as  in  its  labors  and  its  prosperity ! 

But  there  is  another  prayer  that  goes  from  man  to 
God  without  crossing  the  lips,  and  that  is  mental 
prayer.  This  too  should  be  common  to  father  and 
child,  and  especially  to  husband  and  wife. 

Do  you  remember  that  page  of  the  Confessions  of 
Saint  Avgiistine,  beautiful  above  all  the   rest?     The 

*  Matthew,  vi.  6.  t  Hebrews,  x.  25, 

^  liomans,  svi.  5  ;    1  Corinthiane,  xvi,  19. 


200  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

personages  are  not  man  and  wife,  but  mother  and  son  : 
but  no  matter — they  are  two  souls  wedded  in  tender- 
ness and  purity.  A  few  days  before  Monica's  death, 
Augustine  was  with  her  in  her  house  in  Ostium.  They 
were  both  there,  one  evening,  watching  the  sky,  the  sea, 
the  land,  that  Roman  scenery,  so  sad  and  so  beautiful, 
that  speaks  so  deeply  of  the  infinite.  Their  hearts 
were  going  up  in  mental  prayer,  for  they  spoke  not,  or 
at  least  they  spoke  but  little;  they  were  going  up  to  in- 
visible things,  to  ideas,  to  moral  sentiments,  to  the  soul, 
to  the  eternal  types  of  the  true  and  the  beautiful — to 
God  himself,  the  source  of  all  these  great  things.  There 
came  a  moment  when  they  attained  unto  God,  ictit  oc- 
uU,  idle  cordis,  with  one  outstroke  of  the  intellect  and 
heart,  like  those  who,  sailing  into  port,  touch  the  shore 
before  they  are  able  to  land.  Even  so,  at  last,  they  had 
touched  the  shore  of  the  Infinite.  A  moment  fleeting 
as  time,  but  full  as  eternity.  What  happened  to  Mon- 
ica and  Augustine  is  the  history  of  mental  prayer  in 
Christian  families :  the  history  of  religious  life  between 
man  and  wife,  the  truest,  sweetest,  most  enduring  of  all 
loves !  Yes,  when  a  man  and  a  wife  have  made  com- 
mon property  of  their  conscience  and  their  reason — as  I 
said  before,  I  do  not  understand  marriage  without  a 
community  of  reason  and  conscience — when  this  wife, 
understanding  her  husband,  and  this  husband,  under- 
standing his  wife,  read  together  the  great  masterpieces 
of  human  genius,  Homer,  Dante,  Shakespeare,  or  bet- 
ter still,  the  divine  masterpieces.  Genesis  and  the  Gos- 
pel ;  when  they  contemplate  the  scenes  of  JSTature,  now 
grand,  now  beautiful ;  when  they  experience  in  common 
the  vicissitudes  of  the  family,  grouped  around  these 
three  centres — birth,  love,  death,  like  the  statue  of  the 
ancient  desert,  which  responded  with  harmonious  mur- 


THE   CHURCH   IN   THE   FAMILY.  201 

murs  to  the  first  rays  of  the  sun,  their  sonl  also 
responds  to  this  sun  of  Nature,  of  the  human  mind,  of 
the  family,  of  revealed  faith,  this  divine  sun — for  all 
this  comes  from  God ! — their  souls  blend  in  the  same 
prayer,  and  the  husband,  as  '^the  head  of  the  wife," 
presides  at  this  unuttered  prayer,  this  love  which  is 
prayer,  this  prayer  which  is  love ! 

Ah !  that  man  has  never  known  what  it  is  to  love — he 
has  talked  about  love,  he  has  not  understood  it — who 
has  not  known  these  secrets  of  God  in  love,  and  of  love 
in  God.  In  these  hours  we  feel  God,  we  gaze,  upon 
him,  we  discern  him — at  least  when  our  heart  is  pure — 
and  wiping  away  a  tear,  w^e  exclaim :  "  We  thank  thee, 
Lord !  for  in  these  hours  the  old  curse  has  been  sus- 
pended, the  saddest  of  our  pangs  has  ceased,  and  those 
flowers,  united  of  old  in  Eden,  but  separated  ever  since, 
have  mingled  their  splendor  and  their  perfume  on  the 
stem  of  human  life — the  flower  of  love  and  the  flower 
of  virginity  !"  This  married  pair,  are  they  indeed  hus- 
band and  wife  ?  These  virgin  ones,  are  they  still  vir- 
ginal ?  They  are  virgin  spouses,  and  espoused  virgins  ! 
God  is  in  their  love,  their  love  is  in  God.  The  hus- 
band is  priest,  because  he  has  been  the  teacher  of  his 
children  and  his  wife;  because  he  has  governed  their 
conscience  and  their  will ;  he  is  priest  because  he  has 
frayed  with  his  lips  in  the  midst  of  them,  with  his 
heart  in  their  heart,  and  with  his  soul  in  their  soul. 
Such  is  the  priesthood  of  the  household.  "  I  am  the 
God  of  Abraham,  of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob,  the  God  of 
Sarah,  of  Rebecca,  and  of  Rachel;  that  is  my  name  for 
evermore !" 

II.  Having  established,  as  the  teaching  of  revela- 
tion, the  existence  of  a  domestic  priesthood,  of  which 
the  father  of  the  family  is  the  priest,  it  is  my  next  duty 

0* 


202  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

to  take  up  the  reproach  cast  upon  the  Church,  of  having 
brought  about  the  downfall  of  this  priesthood.  I  listen 
to  this  objection,  often  violent  and  hypocritical  indeed, 
and  yet,  again,  too  earnest  not  to  be  sincere.  It  is  sum- 
med up  as  follows:  The  influence  of  a  Catholic  institu- 
tion, compulsory  confession,  has  destroyed  in  the  fam- 
ily the  moral  and  religious  authority  of  the  father,  by 
yielding  up  the  conscience  of  the  mother  and  the  chil- 
dren wholly  into  the  power  of  a  stranger,  the  priest, 
and  this  substitution  has  consummated  the  moral  di- 
vorce of  m.an  and  wife. 

It  is  first  to  be  considered  whether  the  fact  which 
serves  as  the  starting-point  for  this  objection  is  true  or 
false;  and  it  is  capable  of  proof,  as  a  general  rule,  that 
in  the  city  populations  of  France — for  w^e  confine  our 
attention  to  France,  and  particularly  to  the  cities — the 
priesthood  of  the  father  of  the  family  has  disappeared 
entirely,  or  almost  entirely ;- the  moral  and  religious 
guidance  of  consciences,  where  it  still  survives,  has 
passed  entirely,  or  almost  entirely,  into  the  hands  of  the 
Catholic  priest,  who  thus  cumulates  the  two  priest- 
hoods, the  hierarchical  and  the  domestic.  The  fact, 
then,  must  be  frankly  admitted,  not,  however,  without 
observing  that  there  are  exceptions  so  numerous  and 
respectable  that  they  must  not  be  left  out  of  the  account. 

Still,  the  fact  exists,  and  we  w411  not  seek  to  justify 
it  in  itself.  On  the  contrary,  we  do  not  hesitate  to 
pronounce  it  abnormal,  for  this  fact  implies  profound 
degeneracy  in  the  character  and  authority  of  the  head 
of  the  family,  and,  in  the  families  infected  with  it,  a 
moral  and  religious  disorganization  wiiich  passes  into 
anarchy  or  despotism,  and  the  incidental  results  of 
which,  more  profound  than  is  imagined,  make  them- 
selves felt  throughout  the  whole  structure  of  society. 


THE  CHURCH  IN  THE  FAMILY.        203 

But  admitting  the  existence  and  the  danger  of  the 
fact,  it  remains  for  us  to  seek  its  true  cause  and  its  true 
7-emecly. 

1.  First,  the  cause. — Those  who  would  throw  the  re- 
sponsibility for  it  upon  the  Church,  will  do  well  to  pon- 
der this  question  :  Is  it  the  Church  that  has  usmyed 
this  authority,  or  you  who  have  aiclicated  it  ? 

If  the  question  Avere  one  of  particular  acts,  due,  not 
to  the  Catholic  institution,  but  to  a  want  of  enlighten- 
ment or  of  rectitude  in  this  or  that  minister  represent- 
ing it,  doubtless  it  must  be  admitted  that  in  certain 
cases  the  priest  has  usurped.  I  willingly  admit  that  all 
of  us  in  the  Church — laity,  priests,  popes — w^e  are  all 
liable,  both  to  error  and  to  sin.  Jesus  Christ  alone  is 
holy,  with  his  Church  taken  in  its  universality — "  Thou 
only  art  holy."  ....  "I  believe  in  the  holy  Catholic 
Church" — and  I  do  not  deem  it  either  expedient  or 
right  to  retort  in  an  inverse  sense  the  tactics  of  the 
school  of  Voltaire — "  Keep  lying  ;  some  of  it  will 
stick !"  Falsehood  is  even  more  hateful  and  more  bane- 
ful when  it  pretends  to  serve  the  Church  than  when  it 
pretends  to  ruin  it 

But  it  is  not  a  question  as  to  particular  acts,  but  as  to 
a  condition  of  affairs  already  general,  or,  at  least,  tend- 
ing to  become  so,  which  condition  is  said  to  owe  its  ex- 
istence to  the  Catholic  institution  itself.  In  this  view 
the  priest  has  not  been  guilty  of  usurpation. 

No  !  it  is  no  usurpation  when  we  fulfil  the  universal 
mission  assigned  us  by  Jesus  Christ  for  the  salvation  of 

souls He  has  told  us  to  go  to  all,  without  clistipc- 

tion  of  husband  or  wife,  master  or  slave,  considering 
them  all  as  one  in  Christ  Jesus.  We  have  jio  right  to 
turn  away  from  any  pne.  He  hag  also  told  us  :  ^•l\n:iqse- 
soever  sins  ^e  rep^it,  they  ^re  reroittecl  uijtQ  them"  ,  .  , 


204  DISCOURSES   OF   FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

*' Whatsoever  ye  sliall  loose  on  earth  shall  be  loosed  in 
heaven/'*  AVe  have  exercised  this  beneficent  ministry. 
Far  from  being  tlie  enemies  of  the  family,  we  are  its 
benefactors,  when  we  bring,  in  the  name  of  Jesns  Christ 
and  the  Church,  what  the  father  of  the  family  is  power- 
less to  give — the  outward  means  and  the  moral  assu- 
rance of  the  forgiveness  of  sins ;  when  we  dispose  the 
heart  to  receive  this  pardon,  and  when  we  pronounce 
that  absolution  which  betokens  grace  and  produces  it  in 
the  heart  prepared  for  it.  We  are  the  benefactors  of  the 
family — not  its  disorganizers,  when,  in  the  majesty  and 
sanctity  of  the  sacrament,  we  receive  confidences  neces- 
sary not  only  by  virtue  of  the  law  of  the  Gospel,  but 
also  by  reason  of  the  most  Imperative  needs  of  the  hu- 
man soul, — confidences,  however,  which  cannot  and 
should  not  be  made  at  home.  We  are,  finally,  the 
benefactors  of  the  family  when  we  make  known  to  each 
of  its  members,  with  the  authority  of  our  ministry, 
"  as  though  God  did  beseech  them  by  us,"t  the  coun- 
sels and  practical  exhortations  that  enlighten  the  igno- 
rant, and  restore  and  strengthen  the  feeble. 

It  is  not  we,  then,  who  have  usurped,  but  it  is  you 
who  have  abdicated. 

You  have  abdicated  your  domestic  priesthood  in  the 
bosom  of  a  Christiq^n  family,  in  that  you  have  abdi- 
cated the  exercise  of  Christian  duty.  Is  there  any  in- 
struction, any  government,  any  family  worship  in  your 
homes  ?  And  if  there  be  such,  is  it  you  who  preside 
over  them  and  conduct  them  ?  In  the  sanctuary  of  the 
Church  and  in  the  sanctuary  of  the  household,  do  you 
lead  the  family  in  the  performance  of  religious  duties  ? 
And  with  regard  to  morality,  do  you  put  in  practice  the 
piorality  of  the  gospel,  or  the  morality  of  skepticism  and 

*  John,  XX.  23 ;    Matthe-jv,  jEviii.  18,  1 2  Corinthians,  v.  20. 


THE  CHURCH   IN  THE   FAMILY.  205 

lust?  Perhaps  you  have  renounced  the  Christian  faith. 
How  then  could  you  haye  any  religious  conviction,  and 
any  conscience  of  right  and  wrong  in  common  with  your 
wife  and  children  ?  Perhaps  you  have  even  lost  all  re- 
ligious belief  whatever,  and  passed  over  from  the  ranks 
of  the  deists  to  the  ranks  of  the  materialists,  or  at  least 
of  the  skeptics  ?  Once  more,  how  would  you  be  able  to 
instruct  the  mind,  give  counsel  to  the  conscience,  and 
direct  the  soul  ? 

Yes,  you  have  abdicated,  and  by  that  fatal  abdication 
you  have  become  the  authors  of  the  vast  and  j^rofound 
evil  of  which  you  complain,  and  frorn.  which  you  all 
suffer.  Children  must  have  religion,  their  education  is 
impossible  without  it.  Even  skeptics  generally  admit 
this,  and,  on  this  ground,  they  admit  religion  into  their 
families.  Besides,  the  wife  is  not  enough  to  guide  the 
children.  She,  too,  must  be  religious  ;  and  because  her 
mind  acts  rather  by  intuition  than  by  reasoning,  be- 
cause her  heart,  more  than  man's,  is  made  for  suffering 
and  loving,  there  are  invincible  affinities  and  connec- 
tions between  her  and  God.  But,  in  moral  and  relig- 
ious matters,  as  in  everything  else,  indeed  especially  in 
them,  woman  cannot  do  without  the  man's  government. 
The  great  apostle  comes  back  continually  to  this  point, 
"  man  is  the  head  of  woman,  as  Christ  is  the  head  of 
man."  To  hear  him,  one  might  suppose  that  the  hus- 
band is  a  necessary  mediator  between  woman  and  Christ, 
as  Christ  is  himself  the  mediator  between  the  Church 
and  God.  Now  all  this  you  have  lost  sight  of.  You 
have  held  yourself  aloof,  or  have  even  attempted  to  in- 
vade the  domain  of  the  Christian  conscience.  And 
then,  alarmed  at  your  encroachments  or  your  abdica- 
tion, the  wife  has  taken  her  soul,  and  with  it  the  cradle 
of  her  children,  and  has  laid  them  both  at  the  feet  of 


206  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

the  priest ;  she  has  put  them  in  his  keeping,  waiting  for 
better  days.  We  then  have  usurped  nothing  ;  it  is  3^ou 
who  have  abdicated  everything. 

2.  But  is  there  no  remedy  for  this  evil  ?  0  God  of 
our  salvation  !  wilt  thou  not  revisit  thy  people  and  build 
up  our  ruins  ? 

It  depends  upon  you,  fathers,  to  bring  about  a  better 
future  for  the  whole  world ;  it  depends  upon  you  to  re- 
alize it  from  this  very  day,  beneath  your  own  roof. 
Learn  to  have  some  higher  aspiration ;  learn  to  be,  in 
the  full  meaning  of  the  word,  the  father  of  the  family — 
the  head  of  the  house;  learn,  we  beg  of  you,  to  send 
us  back  within  our  proper  limits,  to  have  us  confine 
ourselves  to  the  exercise  of  our  priesthood ;  and,  to  that 
end,  resume  the  exercise  of  your  own. 

I  remember  that  several  years  ago,  eight  young  men, 
under  the  guidance  of  the  immortal  Ozanam,  founded 
the  society  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul But  no,  an  ear- 
lier and  nobler  example  rushes  to  my  mind.  Eighteen 
centuries  ago,  twelve  young  men,  gathered  by  Christ 
among  the  towns  of  Galilee  and  the  boats  of  the  sea  of 
Tiberias — twelve  young  men  became  apostles  and  regen- 
erated the  world. 

Take  heed,  brethren  and  friends,  young  men  who 
hear  me — take  heed,  not  to  the  ofiice  of  apostle,  but  the 
office  of  patriarch.  This  day  let  a  blessing  attend  upon 
my  words ;  may  they  prove  to  be  the  calling  of  eight, 
of  a  dozen  true  men  to  this  divine  office  of  father,  and 
they  will  have  done  more  for  France,  for  society,  for  the 
Church,  than  the  political  and  religious  parties  by  which 
they  are  rent  and  torn. 

Yes;  let  a  blessing  rest  upon  these  words  of  mine. 
Ah,  young  men,  may  each  one  of  you  say  to  himself, 
Th«re  is  a  priesthood  that  has  perished  from  the  world, 


THE   CHURCH   IN  THE  FAMILY.  207 

the  most  ancient,  and,  in  one  sense,  the  most  indis- 
pensable  of  all — the  priesthood   of  the   husband  and 
father.     I  will  raise  it  up  in  my  person.    Henceforth  I 
will  put  away  the  speculative  seductions,  and,  still  more, 
the  practical  seductions  of  materialism ;  I  will  remain 
pure,  I  will  keep  myself  worthy,  some  day,  of  loving; 
and,  when  that  day  has  come,  I  will  take  my  bride  from 
the  hands  of  God,  "the  wife  of  my  youth;"*  I  will 
take  her  to  my  arms,  I  will  press  her  u^Don  my  heart  as 
upon  an  altar,  and,  commingling  my  soul  with  hers  in 
one  song,  one  flame,  one  incense-cloud,  I  will  lift  her  up 
before  Jehovah  as  a  victim,  a  glorious  sacrifice  of  tender- 
ness and  purity ;  I  will  love  her  "  as  Christ  loved  the 
Church."    I  will  offer  up  myself  for  her,  "  as  Christ  also 
gave  himself  for  the  Church,"  that  through  the  power 
of  love  "he   might  present  it  to   himself  a  glorious 
Church,  not  having  spot  nor  wrinkle."f    This  will  I  do. 
In  my  love  I  will  be  a  priest — priest  of  the  fellowship 
of  our  consciences  and  our  prayers.   I  will  be  a  priest  in 
my  fatherhood  :  God  shall  be  in  the  fruitfulness  of  my 
fatherhood  as  well  as  in  the  chastity  of  my  love !    Woe ! 
woe  to  the  bastard  races  born  only  of  flesh  and  blood ! 
"Woe  to  the  races  that  have  no  origin  save  the  gross  will 
of  the  animal  man !    But  blessed,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
men  who  are  born  of  God,  whom  their  father  has  begot- 
ten with  his  soul,  whom  he  has  begotten  a  second  time 
in  his  affection,  upon  whom  he  has  stamped  the  divine 
impress  of  his  conscience,  his  justice,  and  his  religion. 
That  is  what  I  would  be — let  the  Christian  youth  say 
to  himself.    I  would  be  a  husband  and  a  father ;  I  would 
know,  here  on  this  earth,  where  people  no  longer  seem 
to  have  anv  idea  of  it,  what  it  is  to  love  a  woman  in  God 
and  for  God — what  it  is  to  beget  children  in  God  and 

*  Proverbs,  v.  18.  %  Ephesians,  v.  25,  27. 


208  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

for  God.     I  would  be  a  priest !     0  God  of  Abraham,  of 
Isaac,  and  of  Jacob,  grant  me  thy  blessmg ! 

Thus  it  is.  Gentlemen,  that  the  priesthood  after  the 
order  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  will  rise  from  its 
ruins,  and  stretch  forth  its  hand  to  that  other  priest- 
hood after  the  order  of  Melchisedek,  that  had  no 
father  nor  pedigree,  says  St.  Paul — the  priesthood  after 
the  order  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Apostles.  And  when 
these  two  hands  have  been  laid  in  mutual  fraternity 
upon  every  family — the  hand  of  the  Catholic  priest  and 
the  hand  of  the  household  priest, — the  hand  of  the  father 
respected  in  his  independence  and  in  his  government  of 
hearts,  and  the  hand  of  the  Catholic  j^riest  appealed  to 
sincerely,  faithfully,  as  he  that  is  to  help  and  complete 
the  work  of  the  domestic  priest,  then  the  world  will  be 
saved,  and  not  before.  Yes,  whatever  you  may  do,  you 
will  be  powerless,  utterly  powerless,  so  long  as  the 
priesthood  of  the  father  of  the  family  is  not  resuscitated, 
and  its  hand  does  not  rest  in  that  of  the  priesthood  of 
the  Church ! 


LECTURE     FOURTH. 

December  20,  1868. 


THE  JEWISH  NATIONAL  CHURCH. 

IiT  taking  leave  of  the  domestic  Clinrch  of  the  patri- 
archs, we  give  it  onr  parting  salutations  as  one  of 
those  pregnant  ideas  which  teem  with  inexhaustible 
fecundity — one  of  those  central  points  around  which 
we  must  build  if  we  would  leave  behind  us  anything 
useful  and  lasting.  We  shall  come  upon  it  again — we 
shall  return  to  it  more  than  once  as  we  proceed.  But 
just  at  this  moment  we  are  to  study  its  transformation 
into  the  Jewish  national  Church.  For  above  the  family 
comes  the  nation ;  and  in  the  order  of  history,  as  well 
as  in  the  order  of  logic,  the  work  of  Abraham  is  the 
preparation  for  the  work  of  Moses.  The  domestic 
Church  of  the  patriarchs  leads  to  the  national  Church 
of  the  Jews.  In  a  future  discourse  I  will  consider  the 
internal  constitution  of  this  Church.  To-day  I  propose 
only  to  consider  in  a  general  way  the  tie  which,  under 
the  Mosaic  law,  united  the  religious  life  with  the  life  of 
the  nation. 

On  the  summit  of  Mount  Sinai  I  hear  God  uttering 
his  voice ;  at  its  foot,  I  behold  a  people  forming  itself 
into  a  nation.  But  this  people  is  at  once  a  people  and 
a  Church;  and  this  God  is  at  once  the  God  of  this 
Church   and  the  King  of  this  people.     So  that  the 


210  DISCOUKSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

Church,  in  this  second  phase  of  its  development,  unites 
and  merges  its  own  life  in  the  life  of  a  particular  peo- 
ple, thus  giving  the  pattern  of  what  it  is  to  do  hereaf- 
ter, after  the  coming  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  other  forms,  and 
without  weakening  catholic  unity,  for  each  one  of  the 
nations  that  shall  be  gathered  into  its  fold.  Now  the 
life  of  a  people,  viewed  according  to  what  is  most  gen- 
eral and  most  essential,  can  be  summed  up  in  its  agri- 
cultural and  its  political  life.  What  have  the  institutes 
of  Moses  had  to  do  in  respect  to  each  of  these  two  ele- 
ments ? 

I.  The  prosperity  of  nations,  as  of  families,  results  es- 
pecially from  the  connection  that  they  form  with  the 

soil.  Patriotism  is  not  a  purely  moral  sentiment ;  like 
all  the  feelings  of  our  hearts,  it  needs  an  object  incarnate 
in  matter.  Oiir  country  takes  to  itself  a  body  in  the 
land  of  our  forefathers,  and  the  love  that  it  inspires  is 
merged  in  love  for  the  soil.  In  its  soil  does  the  father- 
land wish  to  be  loved  and  served.  The  surest  source  of 
a  nation's  wealth,  and  the  source  nearest  to  its  moral 
life,  is  the  soil  made  fruitful  by  human  labor. 

But  what  shall  consecrate  tliis  wedlock  of  man  and 
the  earth?  What  shall  give  to  the  earth  that  sacred 
character  of  which  it  has  need,  not  to  charm  but  to  fix 
the  roving  heart  of  man  ?  What  shall  bring  down 
upon  man's  labor  that  strong,  swTet  anointing,  beneath 
which  patriotism  shall  flourish,  w^hile  the  fields  are 
clothed  with  harvests  ?  There  is  no  close  and  lasting 
union  of  a  nation  with  its  soil,  except  that  which  is  con- 
secrated by  religion. 

With  the  Jews,  the  land  is  the  object  of  an  unparal- 
leled consecration.  This  is  the  land,  above  all  others, 
that  deserves  to  be  called  the  Holy  Land,  and  to  exert 
upon  strangers  an  irresistible  charm.      Our  fathers,  the 


THE  JEWISH  NATIONAL  CHUECH.  211 

early  pilgrims,  bedewed  it  with  their  tears ;  our  fathers, 
the  Crusaders,  bathed  it  w4th  torrents  of  their  heroic 
blood ;  we,  ourselves,  have  learned  at  our  mothers'  knees 
to  name  it  and  to  love  it,  until  we  scarcely  know  which 
is  dearer  to  us,  the  land  of  France  or  tlie  Holy  Land ! 
And  do  not  its  exiled  sons,  to-day,  on  the  hospitable 
banks  of  the  Seine,  as  they  did  of  yore  on  the  hostile 
banks  of  the  Euphrates,  still  mingle  the  recollection  of 
it  with  all  their  dreams,  with  all  their  prayers  ?  "  No  ;" 
they  say  to-day  as  they  said  of  old :  "  We  will  not  sing 
while  sitting  by  the  waters  of  Babylon.  At  the  re- 
membrance of  Zion  we  have  but  weeping  and  tears." 
*^By  the  rivers  of  Babylon  there  we  sat  down;  we 
wept,  when  we  remembered  Zion.  If  I  forget  thee,  0 
Jerusalem,  let  my  right  hand  forget  her  cunning,  let 
my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth." 

Situated  at  the  junction  of  the  three  continents  that 
formed  the  ancient  world,  on  the  shore  of  that  sea  that 
was  the  centre  and  the  highway  of  the  civilization  of 
antiquity,  so  near  to  everything  and  yet  so  isolated  from 
everything  by  that  sea,  by  that  other  sea  whose  sandy 
waves  served  it  as  a  rampart,  by  the  impregnable  for- 
tress of  Lebanon,  Palestine  was  the  abode  destined  by 
God  for  his  people,  promised  with  an  oath  to  the  patri- 
archs, and  given  at  last  to  their  posterity. 

But  this  land,  favored  in  so  many  respects,  is  not  one 
of  those  enchanted  and  prodigal  regions  that  charm 
their  inhabitants  to  sleep  in  voluptuous  idleness.  It  is 
not  like  Egyjit,  watered  and  fertilized  by  the  Nile ;  it  is 
a  mountainous  country,  in  which  there  is  especial  need 
of  the  constant  toil  of  man,  and  the  constant  blessing 
of  God.  So  God  would  continue  to  be,  in  the  strict 
sense  of  the  word,  the  owner  of  the  land,  insomuch 
that  no  portion  of  it  might  ever  be  alienated,  and  the 


212  DISCOURSE ^•   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

Israelites  might  hold  only  as  tenants.  "  The  land  shall 
not  be  sold  forever;  for  the  land  is  mine,  and  ye  are 
strangers  and  sojonrners  with  me."*  And  the  Jewish 
people,  on  its  part — because  it  is  the  typical  people, 
and  because,  as  such,  it  is  to  bring  out  in  relief  the 
essential  traits  of  national  life,  leaving  in  the  shade 
everything  secondary — is  a  people  of  husbandmen  and 
shepherds.  It  is  the  most  agriciiUnral  and  the  most 
religious  of  all  nations. 

By  reason  of  this  close  union  of  rural  life  and  reli- 
gious life,  the  three  great  feasts  of  the  Mosaic  institute 
have  reference  to  the  work  of  the  field.  The  Feast  of 
the  Passover  celebrates  the  time  when  the  ears  of  grain 
begin  to  show ;  the  Feast  of  Pentecost,  the  time  when 
the  ripe  crops  fall  beneath  the  sickle ;  the  Feast  of  Tab- 
ernacles, the  finished  harvest.  Then  the  head  of  the 
family,  still  invested  with  the  patriarchal  priesthood, 
notwithstanding  the  legal  priesthood  invested  in  the 
tribe  of  Levi,  went  up  to  Jerusalem  with  the  first-fruits 
of  hi««  flocks  and  his  fields,  followed  by  his  wife,  his 
children,  and  his  servants.  He  came  into  the  temple 
to  offer  all  that  he  had  from  the  bounty  of  the  Eternal 
and  his  own  labor.  Then  the  people  made  merry  to- 
gether before  their  invisible  Master.  These  were  joyous 
festivals,  intermingled  with  chaste  dances  and  religious 
songs. 

What  a  lesson  for  rationalism  and  for  overwrought 
mysticism !  In  their  excesses  they  come  all  the  nearer 
together,  from  the  fact  that  they  are  extremes.  They 
would  fain  separate  religion  from  the  things  of  the 
earth,  and  from  the  present  life ;  they  would  shut  it  up 
in  its  sanctuaries,  seclude  it  to  the  contemplation  and 
expectation  of  future  happiness.      That  is,  without  a 

*  Leviticus,  xxv.  23. 


THE   JEWISH   NATIONAL   CHURCH.  213 

doubt,  the  sublimest  part  of  religion,  and  it  is  the 
special  mission  of  Christianity  to  develop  it.  But, 
since  the  Christian  does  not,  any  more  than  the  Jew, 
cease  to  dwell  on  the  earth,  Christianity  cannot  be  in- 
different to  any  earthly  interests  or  labors.  With  its 
own  divine  breath  it  should  fill  the  sails  of  commerce 
toward  distant  isles ;  it  should  speed  its  course  over  the 
vast  continents ;  it  should  bless  the  hard  struggles  of 
industry,  and  consecrate  its  conquests,  and  animate,  in  a 
word,  the  production  and  the  distribution  of  wealth,  the 
evidence  and  the  instrument  of  the  universal  brother- 
hood of  nations!  But  upon  agriculture  especially 
should  it  bestOAV  its  sympathies  and  its  benedictions. 
For  agriculture  is  the  essential  labor  of  nations,  while 
commerce  and  industry  are  only  their  luxury — a  neces- 
sary luxury,  no  doubt,  but  after  all  a  luxury. 

And  since  I  am  speaking  of  agriculture  among  the 
Jews,  permit  me  to  revert  to  France,  that  France  which 
has  been  called  by  great  popes  "  the  tribe  of  Judah  of 
the  Catholic  Church,"  and  to  view  it  in  its  country 
provinces.  Its  cities  are  great,  but  so  are  its  fields. 
Let  us,  then.  Gentlemen,  greet  in  its  country  homes — 
the  most  intelligent  and  prosperous  of  all  homes,  as 
they  are  the  most  Christian — that  hardy  race  of  French 
peasants  with  their  practical  treasures  of  wisdom  and 
goodness,  in  our  day  too  little  appreciated.  Here  I  be- 
hold, upon  our  soil,  in  the  midst  of  our  brethren,  the 
daily  realization  of  the  beautiful  figure,  at  once  posi- 
tive and  poetical,  under  which  the  prophets  depict 
Messiah's  reign.  Henceforth  let  there  be  no  more 
swords,  nor  spears.  Lift  up  your  heads!  Beat  your 
swords  and  spears  into  ploughshares,  and  with  these 
peaceful  weapons  pierce  the  earth  with  fruitful  wounds! 
Be  every  man  the  owner  of  his  field  and  vineyard.    Sit 


21^  DISCOURSES   OF   FATHER   HYACINTHE.  • 

down  beneath  the  shade  of  your  own  vine  and  lig-tree, 
and  talk  together  of  the  joys  of  heaven,  indeed,  but 
also  of  the  good  things  of  the  earth,  that  are  the  proph- 
ecy and  preparation  of  heaven. 

And  as  we  are  speaking  of  our  splendid  peasantry, 
suffer  me  to  pause  a  moment  before  that  man  whom  I 
shall  call,  with  the  poet,  "  a  ploughman  clad  in  mourn- 
ing." Beneath  his  black  cassock,  what  simplicity! 
what  goodness !  I  behold  his  abode,  the  poorest,  per- 
haps, and  yet  the  brightest — the  quietest,  and  yet  the 
most  cheerful,  looking  out  on  one  side  upon  the  village 
and  the  fields,  on  the  other  upon  the  church  and  the 
graveyard.  I  know  him  well ;  it  is  the  country  parish 
priest,  the  obscure  and  sacred  liuk  between  the  catholic 
life  and  the  national  life  of  our  Church  of  France. 
The  country  priest,  one  of  the  most  deserving  servants 
of  our  native  land,  one  of  the  most  essential  ministers 
of  our  Church. 

II.  Man  does  not  live  by  bread  alone.  So  a  people 
worthy  of  the  name  does  not  live  solely  by  agricultural 
labor.  There  are  national  events,  social  institutions,  a 
2)oUtical  life.  From  one  point  of  view,  it  is  of  the  ut- 
most importance  that  religion  should  be  separated  from 
politics.  It  may  not  belittle  itself  to  the  proportions  of 
the  parties,  whatever  they  be,  with  which  it  might  be 
involved.  People  must  not  be  able  to  say,  instead  of 
the  catholic  Church,  the  catholic  party.  But  from 
another,  and  no  less  correct  point  of  view,  it  is  extremely 
desirable,  it  is  necessary,  that  religion  should  not  hold 
itself  aloof  from  any  element  of  national  life.  Whether 
they  are  to  be  legally  united  depends  upon  circumstan- 
ces ;  but  in  every  age  and  in  every  country,  they  should 
be  morally  united.  History,  in  every  age,  and  particu- 
larly in  our  own,  shows  that  the  most  powerful  peoples 


THE   JEWISH   NATIONAL   CHUKCH.  215 

are  precisely  those  in  whom  this  union  is  most  strongly 
impressed  upon  thought  and  character. 

Nowhere  has  it  existed  as  it  did  among  the  Jews. 
ATith  them,  the  religious  and  the  national  spirit  were 
but  one,  and  the  name  that  people  bear  is  literally  true 
— the  peojjle  of  God.  From  God  indeed,  from  God  di- 
rectly and  by  miracle,  they  received  those  three  grand 
things  that  constitute  political  life — liherty,  laiu,  govern- 
ment. The  three  agricultural  feasts  of  which  we  have 
spoken  above  were  also  three  political  feasts.  The 
Passover  celebrated  liberty — the  deliverance  from  Egyp- 
tian bondage ;  Pentecost,  the  promulgation  of  the  law 
from  Mount  Sinai ;  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  the  fel- 
lowship of  the  people  dwelling  happily  in  its  tents  under 
the  safeguard  of  government. 

1.  Liberty. — It.  is  with  liberty  in  the  public  life  of  na- 
tions as  with  love  in  the  private  life  of  families.  No 
more  disastrous  divorce  than  that  between  the  idea  of 
religion  and  the  idea  of  liberty.  Through  this  divorce, 
liberty  degenerates  into  license ;  it  becomes  a  scourge. 
Allied  with  religion,  it  remains  itself,  fruitful  and  glori- 
ous. "  If  the  truth  shall  make  you  free,"  says  Christ, 
"  then  are  ye  free  indeed.'"* 

Jewish  liberty  was  the  daughter  of  Jehovah.  The 
Hebrews  w^ere  slaves  in  Egypt ;  worse  than  that — they 
loved  their  bondage.  They  groaned  beneath  the  blows 
of  Pharaoh's  taskmasters;  but  when  their  daily  task 
was  accomplished,  they  would  sit  down  with  sensual 
delight  to  their  flesh-pots,  the  remembrance  of  which 
called  forth  their  regrets  during  the  painful  beginnings 
of  their  deliverance — "  the  land  of  Egj^ot,  where  w^e  sat 
by  the  flesh-pots  and  ate  bread  to  the  full."t  This 
satisfaction  of  their  sensual  appetites  had  such  dominion 

*  John,  viii.  32,  86.  t  Exodus,  xvi.  3. 


216  DISCOUKSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

over  them,  that  Moses  had  a  harder  fight,  perhaps, 
against  these  than  against  Pharaoh's  resistance,  although 
he  came  to  them  bringing  the  gift  of  liberty  from  the 
hand  of  Jehovah,  saying,  "  I  AM  hath  sent  me  unto 
you."*  And  it  was  only  with  great  difficulty  that  this 
heroic  ambassador  of  the  Lord  succeeded  in  delivering 
them  both  from  their  political  bondage  to  the  tyrant; 
and  from  their  religious  bondage  to  idols. 

From  this  twofold  deliverance,  thus  simultaneously 
effected,  was  derived  the  divine  character  of  liberty, 
which  always,  among  the  Jews,  continued  true  to  its 
religious  origin.  Bondage  never  ceased  to  be,  in  the 
hands  of  God,  the  most  terrible  of  punishments,  as  liberty 
was  the  most  precious  of  rewards.  Hence  that  hatred 
of  slavery  which  animated  the  Jews,  and  which,  though 
free  from  fanatical  excess,  at  least  in  the  brighter  days 
of  their  history,  carried  with  it,  into  the  wars  so  aptly 
named  "the  wars  of  the  Lord,"f  all  the  fiery  zeal  of 
religious  passion. 

After  a  few  years  of  liberty,  those  Hebrews  had  grown 
out  of  all  recognition,  for  liberty  is  an  educating 
power,  just  as  (in  an  inverse  sense)  slavery  is.  Behold 
their  struggles  in  the  land  of  Canaan ;  see  how  this  love 
of  independence  is  confounded  in  their  soul  with  the 
love  of  God,  and  how  there  was  developed  in  them  a 
passion — a  wild  passion,  as  I  must  call  it,  when  I  listen 
to  the  accents  of  Deborah's  song — a  wild  but  most  noble 
passion,  at  once  the  most  human  and  the  most  divine — 
the  passionate  love  of  country  and  of  God.  They  rose 
up  against  their  adversaries ;  and  when  the  men  came 
not  up  to  crush  the  tyrants,  the  women  were  ready  for 
the  work ! 

I  have  mentioned  Deborah,  the  wife  of  Lapidoth — 

*  Exoclus,  iii.  14.  +  Numbers,  xxi.  18. 


THE  JEWISH  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  217 

Deborah  the  prophetess,  who,  sitting  under  a  palm-tree, 
judged  all  the  children  of  Israel  assembled  unto  her  to 
settle  their  disputes  at  her  feet*  Deborah,  seeing  her 
people  under  the  yoke  of  the  king  of  Canaan,  beneath 
the  sword  of  his  general  Sisera,  unfurls  the  banner  of 
liberty,  calls  upon  the  warriors  to  follow  her;  and  when 
the  warriors,  who  had  no  man  to  lead  them  to  combat, 
saw  this  woman  braver  than  the  men,  they  followed  her, 
and  victory  went  with  them !  And  when  the  enemy  was 
defeated  and  put  to  flight — when  the  prophetess  of 
Israel  had  secured  the  triumph  of  liberty  and  religion, 
she  sang  this  song : 

"  The  mighty  ones  were  no  more  in  Israel, 

The  warriors  had  ceased, 

Until  that  I  Deborah  arose, 

Till  I  arose,  a  mother  in  Israel !" 
"  Awake,  Deborah,  awake !" — 

thus  she  speaks  aloud  to  herself,  calling  forth  the  en- 
thusiasm that  was  thrilling  in  her  veins ; 

"  Awake  !  awake !  utter  a  song ! 
And  thou  Barak,  son  of  Abinoam, 
Arise  and  lead  captivity  captive ! 
The  stars  fought  in  the  height  of  heaven, 
They  fought  in  battle  array  against  Sisera. 
The  river  of  Kishon  has  swept  them  away, 
.     That  ancient  river,  the  river  Kishon. 

O  my  soul,  thou  hast  trodden  down  the  mighty  ones  !"f 

Thus  it  was  that,  among  the  Jews,  the  love  of  God, 
joined  to  the  love  of  country,  kindled  even  women's 
hearts  to  a  blaze  of  patriotism. 

And  in  their  internal  organization  what  entire  lib- 

*  Judges,  iv.  4,  5.  t  Ibid.,  v. 

10 


218  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

erty!  Civil  equality,  political  eqimlit}^,  I  was  almost 
going  to  say  social  equality,  were  graven  on  their  laws 
in  the  name  of  God.  All  Jews  were  equal  in  the  eye 
of  the  law,  and  before  the  tribunal  of  the  elders,  who 
were  chosen  for  this  high  office  with  reference  to  their 
age  and  their  virtues,  the  experience  they  had  acquired 
in  life,  and  the  position  they  occupied  at  the  head  of 
families.  All  employments  were  alike  open  to  all,  ex- 
cept the  ceremonial  priesthood,  which  had  devolved 
upon  the  tribe  of  Levi,  that  the  fathers  of  families  in 
other  tribes  might  be  eased  of  the  burden  of  it,  and 
which  was  dearly  bought  by  exclusion  from  all  share  in 
the  distribution  of  property. 

A  mere  shepherd,  like  David  or  Amos,  might  become 
a  king  or  a  prophet.  There  were  no  classes  in  this  so- 
ciety ;  all  were  "  sons  of  Abraham,  and  never  in  bond- 
age to  any  man."*  No  Israelite  was  a  slave.  "  Over 
your  brethren,  the  children  of  Israel,  ye  shall  not  rule 
with  rigor;  for  they  are  my  servants  which  I  brought 
forth  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt ;  they  shall  not  be  sold 
as  bondmen."f  Nor  did  the  law  wish  that  there  should 
be  beggars  or  paupers,  at  least  paupers  condemned  to 
perpetual  and  absolute  poverty.  J 

A  S|3ecial  statute  of  limitation  secured  the  success  of 
this  legal  provision  against  misfortune,  and  even  against 
fault.  The  homestead  could  not  be  alienated  forever. 
By  the  decree  of  God,  every  fifty  years,  when  the  jubi- 
lee trumpets  sounded  their  glad  and  piercing  peal,  the 
homestead  reverted  to  those  who  had  lost  it.§  They 
were,  indeed,  as  Moses  had  said,  a  people  of  hitigs  and 
priests ;  for  the  sovereignty  of  the  fireside  is  the  foun- 

*  John,  viii.  33.  +  Leviticus,  xxv.  46,  42. 

X  Deuteronomy,  xv.  4.    Margin :  "  That  there  be  no  poor  among  you." 

§  Leviticus,  xxv. 


THE  JEWISH   NATIONAL  CHUECH.  219 

dation  of  true  national  sovereignty,  just  as  national  re- 
ligion draws  its  life  from  the  religion  of  the  fireside. 

Doubtless  it  is  out  of  the  question  to  think  of  reviv- 
ing these  forms  among  ourselves.  But  it  is  indispensa- 
ble that  the  same  spirit  should  animate  society  amongst 
us ;  that,  as  it  was  among  the  Jews,  the  idea  of  the 
nation  should  be  in  full  harmony  with  the  idea  of 
religion,  and  that  both  should  find  a  firm  foundation  in 
the  constitution  of  the  family.  The  Jewish  people  is 
the  typical  people ;  above  all  other  nations  it  is  the  peo- 
ple of  the  homestead,  the  people  of  religion  and  of 
liberty. 

No  I  neither  the  nations  of  Greece  and  Rome,  nor 
the  Germanic  races  of  the  middle  ages,  nor  the  great 
nationalities  of  modern  times,  have  equalled  this  type 
of  society.  And,  besides  the  religious  reason  why  God 
permits  this  singular  race  to  exist  in  its  dispersion 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  is  there  not  a  j^olitical 
reason  for  the  strange  phenomenon  ?  May  we  not  find 
some  indication  of  this  in  the  words  of  Scripture :  "  He 
set  the  bounds  of  the  nations  according  to  the  number 
of  the  children  of  Israel."*  Yes ;  if  they  have  to  learn 
from  us  Christianity  and  the  Gospel,  we  have  3'et  to 
learn  from  them  the  Pentateuch  and  liberty. 

2.  But  what  was  the  use,  you  will  perhaps  say,  of  de- 
livering them  from  bondage,  only  to  give  them  forth- 
with a  laio,  and,  soon  after,  a  hingf  Because  a  nation 
is  not  conceivable  without  a  body  of  laws  and  a  govern- 
ment. What,  then,  is  the  legal  system  of  the  Jews  ? 
What  is  their  government  ? 

In  the  Mosaic  economy,  contrary  to  the  custom  of  all 
other  national  constitutions,  the  first  and  principal 
place  is  assigned  to  the  moral  law  as  it  is  graven  upon 

*  Deuteronomy,  xxxii.  8. 


220  DISCOUESES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

the  human  conscience,  though  not  always  recognized 
by  it;  to  the  moral  law  as  it  remained  after  Jesus 
Christ  came  to  fulfil,  not  to  destroy  it ;  to  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments of  God,  which  are  not  only  the  teaching  of 
the  Church,  but  the  teaching  of  Nature  herself,  the 
soul  of  civilization  and  true  progress.  Such  is  the  law 
brought  by  Moses  to  the  people,  written  by  the  hand  of 
God  himself  on  the  tables  of  Mount  Sinai,  and  in  that 
temple  without  images,  where  the  Invisible  shall  dwell 
between  the  outstretched  wings  of  the  cherubim,  the 
book  containing  this  law  shall  be  the  only  image  among 
men  of  God's  justice  and  goodness !  And  in  every 
age,  and  in  every  land,  obedience  to  this  law  shall  be 
the  condition  upon  which  depends  the  dignity  of  man 
and  the  liberty  of  nations. 

Such  being  the  nature  of  the  Jewish  law,  we  cannot 
cherish  any  doubt  as  to  the  nature  of  their  government 
or  the  person  of  their  king.  This  government  is  the- 
ocracy in  its  most  extreme,  but  also  its  pure^  and  most 
efficient  form ;  not  the  government  of  society  by  priests  or 
by  kings  acting  in  the  name  of  God,  but  government  in 
the  hands  of  God  himself,  speaking  directly  to  the  con- 
science of  a  people  at  once  free  and  religious.  The 
Godhead  was  not  to  be  represented  in  the  temple  of  the 
Jews  by  any  image,  lest  it  should,  be  exposed  to  the  idol- 
atrous propensities  of  the  people.  So,  also,  there  was 
to  be  no  visible  royalty  among  them,  because  political 
paganism  almost  always  converted  kings  into  tyrants. 

To-day,  Christianity  preserves  us  from  this  social 
idolatry.  In  those  days  there  was  but  one  possible  pre- 
ventive. "  Your  king,"  exclaimed  Samuel,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  faithless  people  that  asked  for  a  king  like 
the  other  nations,  "your  king  is  the  Lord  your  God."* 

*  1  Samuel,  xii.  12. 


THE  JEWISH  NATIONAL   CHUECH.  221 

And  Gideon,  rejecting  the  sceptre  whicli  they  offered 
him  in  return  for  his  services,  and  which  they  wished 
to  make  hereditary  in  his  family,  had  before  replied: 
"I  will  not  rule  over  you,  neither  shall  my  son  rule 
over  you ;  the  Lord  shall  rule  over  you."* 

And  when  Samuel  was  wroth  at  this  passion  for  servi- 
tude that  he  could  no  longer  repress,  the  Lord  com- 
forted him,  saying  :  "  They  have  not  rejected  thee,  but 
they  have  rejected  me."  And  yielding  to  their  foolish 
desires,  God  gave  them  a  king ;  but  by  the  side  of  this 
royalty,  or  rather  above  it — above  even  the  Levitical 
priesthood  itself,  he  raised  up  the  ministry  of  the  proph- 
ets, through  whom  he  continued  to  reign,  delivering  his 
orders  to  kings  and  priests  and  people. 

Such  was  the  Jewish  people  in  its  liberty,  in  its  laws, 
in  its  government — a  people  essentially  religious.  And 
if  we  seek  for  the  lowermost  foundation  of  this  struc- 
ture, so  massive  even  in  its  ruins,  we  are  surprised — the 
skeptic,  who  believes  only  in  material  organizations, 
would  be  stupefied — to  find  at  the  base  of  this  nation- 
Church  and  Church-nation,  nothing  but  an  idea ! 

One  day  in  the  desert  the  Hebrews  said,  in  sight  of 
the  manna  that  rained  down  to  them  from  heaven  : 
"  Our  soul  loatheth  this  light  food."f  So  there  are 
some  modern  consciences  and  reasons  that  would  re- 
volt at  this  foundation  of  a  Church  and  a  nation — only 
an  idea !  And  yet  that  is  all  we  can  find  there.  But 
what  idea  ?     It  is  the  idea  of  the  living  God ! 

Look  at  the  beginning  of  the  book  of  Exodus ;  you 
wall  find  there  the  same  things  that  you  have  found  in 
Genesis,  at  the  commencement  of  the  history  of  Abra- 
ham, Isaac,  and  Jacob ;  a  vision,  and  in  that  vision,  God. 
To  Abraham,  God  the  only  Sovereign,  Creator,  and  Pre- 

*  Judges,  viii.  23.  +  Numbers,  xxi.  5. 


222  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

server  had  revealed  himself  under  the  name  Elohim 
and  Adonai.  To  Moses,  the  shepherd  wandering  in  the 
desert,  feeding  his  flock  forty  years  in  solitude,  at  the 
foot  of  that  Horeb  that  was  afterward  to  behold  him  as 
a  nation's  lawgiver,  God  reveals  himself  once  more. 
He  is  ever  the  same  God,  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob. 

But  in  this  revelation  there  is  an  advance,  the  last  ad- 
vance in  monotheism.  Elohim  now  calls  himself  Jelio- 
vali.  Beneath  this  new  name  there  is  a  new  conception, 
a  new  idea  ;  it  is  no  longer  merely  the  Creator  and  Gov- 
ernor— it  is  the  Being.  With  painful  effort  human 
philosophy  lifts  itself  thus  high  ;  it  can  rise  no  higher. 
In  the  burning  bush  Jehovah  said :  /  am  that  I  mn. 
Thou  shalt  go  to  the  children  of  Israel;  thou  shalt 
bring  them  hither,  that  I  may  make  my  covenant  with 
them.  If  they  ask  thee,  Who  is  the  God  that  hath 
sent  thee  to  us  ?  thou  shall  say :  I  AM  hath  sent  me.* 
And  there,  no  longer  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  but 
on  its  summit — there  Jehovah  sees  them  gathering 
themselves  together  unto  him ;  there  he  enters  into  cov- 
enant with  them. 

Ah!  it  is  well  that  he  does  not  call  himself  Lord 
and  Master,  as  in  the  days  of  old.  It  is  well  that  now 
he  calls  himself  Jehovah,  for  this  covenant  is  a  cove- 
nant of  supreme  liberty.  He  could  have  forced  himself 
upon  them,  for  he  was  strong :  he  did  not ;  he  suffered 
himself  to  plead  with  them,  for  he  was  wise  and  just! 
He  imposed  nothing — he  merely  proposed.  Moses  was 
the  ambassador  that  went  up  from  the  people  to  God, 
that  came  down  from  God  to  the  people,  and  God  and 
the  people  held  converse  with  one  another.  He  pro- 
poses the  covenant  with  its  conditions ;  the  people  ac- 
cept it  freely.    A  living  idea,  the  idea  of  the  living  God, 

*  Exodus,  iii.  13,  14. 


THE   JEWISH  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  223 

has  been  reyealed  in  one  word  :  "  Ye  saw  nothing,"  said 
the  lawgiver  to  the  people,  "  ye  saw  no  similitude ;  ye 
heard  only  a  voice ;  but  it  was  Jehovah  !"* 

Between  this  living  idea  and  this  people  an  alliance  is 
formed,  formed  beneath  this  rock  riven  by  repeated 
thunderbolts;  fit  shelter  for  the  stormy  wooing  between 
the  faithless  people  and  the  jealous  God !  It  is  more 
than  an  alliance  freely  contracted ;  it  is  a  wedlock !  It 
is  to  pass  down  through  centuries  of  discord  and  centu- 
ries of  peace,  through  ages  of  glory  and  ages  of  igno- 
miny ;  through  the  prosperities  of  David  and  Solomon, 
the  captivities  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  the  scattering 
abroad  to  the  four  winds  of  heaven  :  it  will  subsist  de- 
spite all  changes,  and  throughout  all  ages.  Always, 
and  despite  his  anger,  Jehovah  will  be  faithful  to  his 
people.  Always,  and  despite  their  rebellions,  the  people 
shall  be  faithful  to  their  God ;  and  together  they  shall 
afford  for  all  time  the  glorious,  the  unique  spectacle  of 
a  nation  indestructible  because  it  is  a  Church,  a  Church 
immortal  because  it  is  a  nation. 

Yes.  This  people  has  lost  everything ;  everything 
has  tended  to  cast  it  down  into  the  bottomless  pit  of  de- 
struction ;  the  land  of  Canaan  has  been  taken  away 
from  under  its  feet;  it  has  been  torn  up  by  the  roots, 
and,  as  if  it  had  been  the  prey  of  ravening  beasts,  its 
bleeding  fragments  have  been  carried  off  by  the  nations 
on  every  side.  The  throne  of  David,  the  altar  of  Aaron 
— all  is  in  ruins.  But  when  its  conquerors  are  nothing 
more  than  a  handful  of  dust,  nothing  but  a  name  in 
history,  what  has  this  people  still  left,  that  it  should 
live  on  and  not  cease  filling  the  world  with  its  woes  and 
with  its  glory  ?  It  has  its  God !  This  people  remains 
a  people  because  it  still  believes  in  the  God  of  Sinai! 

*  Deuteronomy,  iv.  12. 


224  DISCOURSES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

And  this  God — I  do  not  mean  Jehovah  himself,  for 
he  is  our  God,  indestructible  by  virtue  of  his  own" 
might — but  this  God,  considered  as  the  God  of  the  faith 
and  the  obsolete  worship  of  this  deathless  people,  what 
is  there  left  to  him  that  he  should  survive  all  his  mis- 
fortunes ?  For  everything  has  gone  against  him,  every- 
thing has  been  battering  into  ruin  the  religion  which 
he  instituted.  Logic  is  against  it ;  and,  what  is  worse, 
facts,  all  history  are  against  it.  This  waiting  for  the 
Messiah  is  the  grandest,  wildest  perseverance  that  ever 
the  Avorld  saw !  And  yet  the  religion  of  the  Jews  stands 
firm ;  the  God  of  the  Jews  abides  still,  despite  the  con- 
futations of  logic  and  of  history.  Why  ?  Because  on  the 
side  of  God  there  is  something  mightier,  in  one  sense, 
than  logic  and  facts — there  is  the  faith  of  this  people ! 

Be  this  a  lesson  to  us,  to  all  Christian  nations — a  peo- 
ple immortal  because  of  its  God,  a  God  that  cannot  be 
forgotten,  because  of  his  people. 


LECTURE    FIFTH. 

December  27,  1868. 


THE  JEWISH  CHUKCH  IN  ITS  EELATIONS  TO 
THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

The  Church  of  the  Jews  presents  two  very  different 
aspects,  according  as  we  look  at  it  in  the  light  of  the  7ia- 
tional  life  of  this  people,  or  in  the  light  of  the  religious 
life  of  mankind.  From  the  first  point  of  view,  it  is  only 
a  national  Church,  the  finished  model  for  the  several 
Churches  wliich,  within  the  pale  of  the  great  Catholic 
Church,  derive  their  life  from  this  common  source,  and 
infuse  it  more  directly  into  the  life  of  the  nations  whose 
names  they  bear;  such  as  the  Church  of  France,  the 
Church  of  Spain,  and,  in  the  happy  days  of  unity,  the 
Church  of  England.  From  the  second  point  of  view, 
it  expands  to  the  dimensions  of  the  human  race  itself,  it 
carries  in  its  womb  the  germ  and  inception  of  the  Cath- 
olic Church. 

"  But  what  is  the  use,"  I  hear  some  inattentive  and 
fretful  spirit  say — "  what  is  tlie  use  of  talking  to  us  so 
much  about  the  synagogue  ?  We  are  no  longer  in  the 
synagogue,  but  in  the  Church."  True,  but  the  syna- 
gogue is  only  the  Church  begun ;  and  the  Church  is 
only  the  synagogue  developed  and  completed.  The 
Church  of  the  Jews  is  the  court  of  which  our  Church 

10* 


226  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

is  the  temple.  Before  entering  the  temple  we  must 
cross  the  court,  and  even  pause  there  a  moment  in 
pious  meditation.  "  Our  feet,"  says  the  psalmist,  "  shall 
stand  within  thy  gates,  0  Jerusalem!  Jerusalem  is 
builded  as  a  city  that  is  compact  together."  In  so  do- 
ing we  shall  do  the  Church  a  service.  A  philosopher 
who,  in  many  respects,  is  worthy  only  of  contempt,  but 
whose  bold  spirit  seized  and  formulated  many  a  truth, 
Machiavelli,  has  said,  that  '^  in  order  to  the  preservation 
of  society,  it  should  constantly  be  brought  back  to  its 
beginnings."  And  Tertullian,  who  is  in  all  points  a 
higher  authority,  especially  in  the  Christian  pulpit,  has 
stated  the  same  law  in  these  terms :  "  Christianity 
maintains  itself  by  means  of  its  holy  antiquity,  and  in 
no  way  can  we  better  repair  the  ravages  with  which  it 
may  be  attacked,  or  threatened,  than  by  bringing  it 
back  to  its  beginnings."*  To  speak  of  Judaism,  then, 
is  to  speak  of  the  Church,  and  to  speak  of  it  in  a  way 
eminently  adapted  to  be  useful. 

But  before  considering  Judaism  m  its  relation  to  the 
CMirch,  it  is  important  to  clear  the  ground  of  one  ob- 
jection that  starts  up  of  itself.  How  can  Judaism 
stand  related  to  the  Church  in  its  character  of  univer- 
sality— Judaism,  whose  distinguishing  character  is  just 
the  opposite,  narrow  and  exclusive  ?  Because  its  mis- 
sion was  one  of  conservation.  It  was  to  preserve  for 
better  times  the  true  religion,  the  constituent  elements 
of  the  universal  Church ;  and  that  could  only  be  by  se- 
questrating those  elements  from  the  influence  of  the 
rest  of  mankind,  then  almost  wholly  corrupt  and  idola- 
trous. When  we  wish  to  keep  some  precious  perfume 
that  is  apt  to  diffuse  itself  and  evaporate,  we  shut  it  up 

*  Omnino  res  Christiana  eanctS  antiquitate  stat,  nee  ruinosa  certius  repara- 
bitiir  quam  si  ad  originem  conaeatur. 


THE   JEWISH   CHURCH   AND  THE   CHRISTIAN.      227 

ill  a  strong,  well-sealed  vase.  So  did  Moses.  This  vase 
he  himself  carved  from  the  rock  of  Sinai ;  or  rather, 
he  fashioned  it  in  the  body  and  the  soul  of  this  ener- 
getic, obstinate  race,  so  inaccessible  to  outside  influ- 
ences. "  A  stifi'-necked  people,"  as  he  often  calls  them, 
whose  stiff-neckedness,  however,  faulty  as  it  was,  was 
none  the  less  a  qualification  for  its  special  mission. 

Isolated  in  this  little  country,  twenty  leagues  in 
breadth,  shut  up  between  the  sea,  the  sand,  and  Leba- 
non ;  isolated  in  its  purity  and  pride  of  blood,  that  has 
kept  itself  irreconcilably  aloof  from  all  admixture ;  iso- 
lated by  its  unsocial  character,  and  that  contempt  for 
the  stranger  which  the  stranger  has  repaid  with  usury 
— the  Jew  was  especially  isolated  by  his  law.  And 
here  I  am  not  speaking  of  the  Decalogue,  strictly  so 
called,  but  of  the  whole  body  of  the  Mosaic  law,  so  far 
as  it  was  peculiar  to  the  Jewish  nation.  So  understood, 
this  law  enveloped  the  Jew,  and  held  him  bound  up,  as 
it  were,  in  a  network  of  religious  and  civil  prescrip- 
tions, as  numerous  as  they  were  minute  and  compli- 
cated. It  gave  to  his  entire  existence  a  foreign  charac- 
ter, that  found  no  analogy  in  the  rest  of  the  world,  and 
was  so  exclusively  peculiar  to  his  land  that  this  law 
does  not  seem  possible  outside  of  Palestine.  This  is  so 
true  that  the  gigantic  labor  of  the  Talmudists,  after 
the  dispersion,  had  for  its  object  to  render  it  less  im- 
practicable by  dint  of  interpretations  and  dispensa- 
tions. "  The  people,"  exclaimed  Balaam,  "  shall  dwell 
alone,  and  shall  not  be  reckoned  among  the  nations  !"* 

Still,  under  the  forms  of  this  religion  that  is  so  nar- 
rowly and  exclusively  national,  we  find  the  constituent 
elements  of  the  grand  and  eternal  religion  of  mankind 
— Christianity.    These  elements  are  doctrine,  moraUty^^ . 

*  Numbers,  xxiil.  9. 


228  DISCOUKSES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

and  luorsliijJ,  wliicli  are  identical,  for  substance,  in  the 
Jewish  and  the  Christian  Churches. 

1.  Doctrine  and  Morality. — The  doctrine  is  summed 
up  in  the  idea  of  God,  and  in  the  idea  of  the  Messiah. 
Of  the  latter  I  shall  speak  by  and  by.  In  the  present 
discourse  we  shall  consider  only  the  former.  It  is  in 
the  Jewish  race  that  the  successive  developments  of  the 
idea  of  God  have  been  accomplished,  by  the  threefold 
revelation  of  the  patriarchs,  the  prophets,  and  the  apos- 
tles. To  the  patriarchs,  God  is  Elohim — that  is,  the  Al- 
mighty Euler.  He  reveals  himself  to  them  in  his  con- 
nection with  the  external  world,  as  Creator  and  Pre- 
server. To  Moses  and  the  prophets,  he  is  Jehovah — that 
is,  the  Being  of  beings,  the  Absolute.  He  reveals  him- 
self in  his  self-existence — "  /  am  that  I  am ."  Sublime 
definition,  which  man  hath  not  made,  on  which  he 
scarcely  dares  to  comment,  and  which  all  the  schools  of 
philosophy  must  borrow  from  the  sacred  echo  of  the 
desert. 

Monotheism  is  complete.  There  is  nothing  more  to 
be  added  upon  the  nature  of  God ;  and  w^hen  the  Gos- 
pel unveils  the  Trinity  it  does  nothing  more — if  we  may 
so  speak — than  deduce  the  consequences  of  the  princi- 
ple laid  down,  and  name  by  their  mysterious  names  the 
three  personal  terms  of  that  life  which  subsists  in  the 
Absolute  Being — the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Spirit.  "And  the  life  was  manifested."*  And  yet 
these  names  had  already  been  uttered  by  the  prophets, 
and  if  they  resound  with  new  solemnity  in  the  syna- 
gogue as  it  is  about  to  be  transformed  into'  the  Church, 
it  is  because  they  are  uttered  by  the  lips  of  Jewish 
apostles,  called  to  teach  them  to  the  nations  that  with- 
out  their  preaching  would  never  have  know^n  them. 

*  J  John,  i.  8. 


THE  JEWISH   CHURCH  AND   THE   CHRISTIAN.       229 

**  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  baptizing  the  nations  into 
the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost."  Thus  shall  be  fulfilled  the  word  of  the 
prophet  Isaiah :  "  The  toilers  of  Egypt,  and  the  mer- 
chants of  Ethiopia  and  of  the  Sabeans  shall  come  over 
nnto  thee,  and  shall  fall  down  unto  thee,  saying: 
*  Surely  God  is  in  thee,  and  there  is  none  else ;  there  is 
no  God  beside.'  "* 

You  remember  that  noble,  erring  spirit,  who,  having 
just  drunk  from  the  broad  rivers  and  the  grand  epics 
of  India,  found  the  lake  of  Tiberias  but  a  pool  in  com- 
parison with  the  Ganges,  and  the  Bible  insignificant  by 
the  side  of  the  Eamayana.  Aiid  yet  the  God  of  hu- 
manity is  no  more  Hindoo  than  he  is  Greek.  The  God 
of  mankind  is  the  God  of  the  Jews !  In  vain  would 
modern  thought,  abusing  the  powers  that  it  derives  in 
part  from  revelation,  seek  to  change  in  the  future  this 
law  of  the  past,  and  to  create  to  itself  a  sublimer  and 
purer  God  than  the  historic  God  of  the  Old  Testament. 
Smitten  with  giddiness,  it  would  reel  between  panthe- 
ism and  atheism,  these  two  forms  of  recent  paganism. 
"  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  the  King  of  Israel,  and  his  Ee- 
deemer,  the  Lord  of  Hosts :  I  am  the  first  and  I  am  the 
last ;  and  beside  me  there  is  no  God  !"t 

It  is  from  the  Jews,  then,  that  mankind  has  received, 
in  Christianity,  the  complete  idea  of  the  living  God; 
and  had  it  received  from  them  no  more  than  this,  it 
would  owe  to  them  a  debt  of  eternal  gratitude.  But 
the  idea  of  God  is  not  all.  Along  with  it  and  the  en- 
tire dogmatic  system  of  which  it  is  the  germ  and  the 
sum,  man  has  need,  besides,  of  morality.  Assuredly, 
Gentlemen,  we  do  not  desire  morality  independent  of 
doctrine ;  but  no  more  do  we  desire  doctrine  independent 

*  Isaiah,  xlv.  14.  t  Ibid,  xliv.  6. 


230  DISCOURSES    OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

of  morality.  Away  with  tlie  God  wlio  should  not  say,  like 
the  God  of  the  Jews,  "  Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am  holy  !"* 
Aw^ay  with  the  God  who  should  demand  of  his  adorers 
only  a  pharisaical  preciseness  in  dogmatic  formulas  and 
the  ceremonies  of  worshi]3,  and  should  suffer  himself  to 
be  venerated  by  men  prostrate  in  the  meanest  of  all 
mire,  the  mire  of  mysticism !  "We  would  have  a  God 
with  "«  law  in  his  hand."    Et  lex  in  manihus  ejus! 

Now,  such  is  the  God  of  the  Jews  ;  and  as  they  have 
given  us  God,  so  they  have  given  us  the  Imv.  Not  now 
that  narrow  law  of  which  I  spoke  at  the  outset, 
that  has  been  rent,  together  with  the  veil  of  the 
temple; — and  in  vain  do  the  Talmudists  seek  to  put 
together  the  fragments.  The  law  that  the  Jews  have 
given  us,  the  law  that  we  are  keeping,  that  we  may 
some  day  return  it  to  them,  is  the  law  of  the  Deca- 
logue, a  law  grand,  holy,  majestic  like  Jehovah,  a 
universal  law  to  which  the  philosophical  or  religious 
legislators  of  antiquity  have  never  been  able  to  attain. 
I  know  that  there  are  admirable  things  in  the  religious 
codes  of  the  East,  in  the  grand  philosophical  systems  of 
the  West.  I  am  foremost  to  admire  the  nascent  splen- 
dors, the  dawning  glories  that  shine  in  these  ethical 
systems.  But  how  inferior,  when  confronted  with  the 
morality  brought  down  from  Sinai — with  the  Decalogue 
of  Moses  !  There  is  not,  to-day,  in  Europe,  a  thought- 
ful scholar  that  would  dare  to  make  the  comparison ; 
there  is  not  in  the  whole  world  a  civilized  people  that 
would  dare  to  risk  the  exchange.  The  morality  of  man- 
kind is  that  which  was  elaborated  in  the  Jewish  code, 
that  which  was  written  by  Moses,  magnificently  com- 
mented by  the  prophets.  That  is  our  system  of  morals, 
It  is  an  everlasting  system ! 

*  Leviticue,  xix.  2. 


THE   JEWISH   CHURCH  AND   THE   CHRISTIAN.       231 

Let  it  not  be  said  that  morality  varies  with  the  indi- 
vidual, and  still  more  so  with  the  race  and  the  century. 
No.  Morality  never  varies ;  it  is  immutable  as  God — - 
inflexible  as  conscience.  The  applications  only  of  moral 
principle  vary  with  a  most  harmonious  flexibility,  a 
most  productive  liberty.  But  as  to  morality  itself,  I  re- 
peat, it  varies  no  more  than  God  varies  in  the  circle  of 
the  heavens — no  more  than  conscience  in  the  depths  of 
the  human  soul.  It  is  immutable ;  the  old  command- 
ments of  Sinai  are,  for  all  time,  the  rule  for  nations, 
Tamilies,  and  individuals.  The  Gospel  of  Christ  and 
the  apostles  has  but  thrown  additional  light  upon  it, 
and  cleared  away  all  shadows,  especially  those  of  Phari- 
saism; and  by  vindicating  morality  against  the  Phari- 
sees, the  Gospel  has  vindicated  Judaism  itself,  which 
they  had  corrupted. 

Were  the  Christian  law,  in  fact,  superior  in  substance 
to  the  Mosaic  law,  that  could  only  be  because  the  Mo- 
saic law  had  failed  to  recognize  inward  righteousness,  or 
because  it  had  failed  to  recognize  charity,  which  rises 
superior  to  the  law  of  which  it  is  the  crown.  But  neither 
of  these  hypotheses  is  admissible.  The  law  of  Moses 
did  not  merely  condemn  the  act — it  did  not  merely 
cleanse  the  outside  of  the  cup,  like  the  Pharisees,  leav- 
ing corruption  within;  but  it  sought  to  make  inside 
and  outside,  the  visible  deed  and  the  inspiring  intention, 
both  pure  in  the  eyes  of  God.  Therefore  it  is  that  Mo- 
ses, prohibiting  the  act,  has  also  forbidden  the  desire ; 
he  has  uttered  that  word  which  is  at  once  the  glory  and 
the  sting  of  the  human  conscience,  "  Thou  shalt  not 
covet." 

You  deem  yourself  no  murderer,  because  you  have 
refrained  from  the  act — because  your  hands  have  not 
been  imbrued  with  the  blood  of  your  fellow-man.     You 


232  DISCOURSES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

consider  yourself  pure,  because  you  have  not  attacked 
the  life,  nor  the  property,  nor  the  honor  of  your  brother ; 
you  think  yourself  exempt  from  God's  judgment  and 
the  pangs  of  conscience,  because  you  have  not  robbed 
your  neighbor  of  his  chief  honor,  his  chief  treasure — 
dear  as  life  itself — the  love,  the  fidelity  of  his  wife.  .  .  . 
If  you  have  coveted  the  blood  of  your  brother,  if  you 
have  coveted  his  gold  or  his  honor,  if  you  have  looked 
upon  his  wife  to  lust  after  her,  you  have  committed 
murder,  robbery,  and  adultery  in  the  dark  recesses  of 
your  conscience!  "Thou  shalt  not  covet."  They  are 
the  words  of  Moses. 

And  he  adds.  Even  though  you  should  not  have 
done  this  in  the  depths  of  your  heart,  even  though  you 
should  have  respected  inward  and  outward  righteous- 
ness, take  heed!  righteousness  is  a  very  narrow,  and 
contracted,  and  impotent  thing,  when  it  comes  short  of 
love!  "And  now,  0  Israel,  Avhat  doth  the  Lord  thy 
God  require  of  thee,"  exclaims  the  lawgiver,  at  the  end 
of  his  commandments — "what  doth  the  Lord  thy  God 
require  of  thee,  but  to  love  him  with  all  thy  heart  and 
with  all  thy  soul  ?"* 

And  Saint  Paul,  commenting  upon  Moses,  has  said 
in  his  turn :  "  He  that  loveth  another"  (for,  as  Saint 
John  says,  let  no  man  think  to  love  God  whom  he 
hath  not  seen,  when  he  loveth  not  his  neighbor  whom 
he  hath  seen,f)  "he  that  loveth  another  hath  fulfilled 
the  law.  For  when  the  law  says,  Thou  shalt  not 
kill ;  thou  shalt  not  steal ;  thou  shalt  not  bear  false  wit- 
ness; thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery,  it  is  briefly 
comprehended  in  this — Thou  shalt  love."|  How  can 
we  commit  murder,  falsehood,  adultery,  when  we  love  ? 
Love,  stronger  than  righteousness,  restrains  us  in  the 

*  Deuteronomy,  x.  12.  +1  John,  iv.  20.  %  Romans,  xili.  8-10. 


THE  JEWISH   CHURCH  AND   THE   CHRISTIAN.       233 

presence  of  all  those  boundary  lines  that  passion  would 
transgress.  Saint  Paul  was  right.  "Love  is  the  fulfill- 
ing of  the  law/'  even  the  law  as  Moses  understood  it. 
Saint  Augustine  is  right  when  he  concludes :  "  Love, 
only  love,  and  thou  shalt  do  what  thou  wilt."  Ama  et 
fac  quod  vis. 

Love,  then,  is  the  last  word  of  Deuteronomy,  and  it 
is  the  first  word  of  the  Gospel.  Jesus  Christ  only 
called  this  commandment  "new"  because  it  was  new 
to  the  Pharisees  of  his  age,  as  it  ever  has  been  and  must 
be  for  all  Pharisees  in  every  age ;  but  he  said :  "  It  is 
the  great  commandment  of  the  law :  Thou  shalt  love 
the  Lord  thy  God  with  ail  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
strength,  and  with  all  thy  mind,"*  also ;  for  God  must 
be  loved  with  the  mind  as  well  as  the  heart.  And  the 
second  commandment  is  like  unto  the  first:  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor.  The  patriarchs  and  the 
prophets  have  summed  up  everything  in  these  two  com- 
mandments. 

I  conclude.  Gentlemen,  that  our  morality  is  the  mo- 
rality of  the  Jews,  as  their  doctrine  is  our  doctrine;  and 
consequently,  when  I  speak  of  the  synagogue  I  speak 
of  our  own  religion,  our  own  Church.  When  I  sit 
down  with  the  patriarchs  and  the  prophets,  I  sit  with 
my  masters,  my  teachers,  my  forerunners  in  Christ ! 
"  Search  the  Scriptures,"  said  Jesus  Christ,  at  a  time 
when  as  yet  there  was  no  New  Testament;  "search 
Moses  and  the  prophets ;  they  are  they  which  testify  of 
me!"t  I  am  right,  then,  in  saying,  with  St.  Augustine, 
that  Christianity  is  Judaism  completed,  as  Judaism  was 
Christianity  begun.  "  Vetus  testamentum  est  occuUatio 
novi,  et  novum  revelatio  veterisJ^ 

2.   Woi'ship,  ceremonies,  sacrifices,  prayer. — Worship 

*  Matthew,  xxii.  28.  t  John,  v.  39. 


234  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

is  the  living  bond  between  morality  and  doctrine,  the 
complete  and  supreme  unfolding  of  the  religious  idea 
in  the  human  soul  and  of  the  religious  soul  before  God. 
And  yet  it  is  the  most  varying  part  of  religion.  We 
know  what  diversified  forms  it  assumes  and  presents 
even  in  the  Catholic  Church  itself.  The  primitive 
Church  beheld  the  prevalence,  at  one  and  the  same 
time,  of  the  greatest  unity  of  love  and  faith,  and  of  the 
greatest  freedom  of  usage  and  rite.  Later,  much  later, 
a  movement  toward  uniformity  manifested  itself,  prov- 
identially designed,  no  doubt,  by  that  Spirit  that  does 
not  cease  to  govern  the  Church.  But,  even  to-day,  is 
not  the  Latin  ritual,  in  certain  Churches  and  religious 
bodies,  diversified  with  authorized  or  rather  consecrated 
differences  ?  And  is  there  not,  alongside  of  the  Latin 
rite,  the  Greek  rite,  or  rather  the  Oriental  rites  ? 

It  is  understood,  then,  that  the  ceremonies  of  the 
Church  of  Moses  have  not  all  been  transferred  to  the 
Christian  Church.  But  a  great  number  of  them  are 
perpetuated  here,  and  the  child  of  Israel,  assuredly, 
would  not  feel  himself  altogether  in  a  strange  place 
were  he  to  consent  to  sit  down  in  our  temples,  and  look 
around  him.  Astonished  and  delighted,  he  would  see 
once  more  what  he  had  believed  to  be  buried  and  lost  be- 
neath the  ruins  of  Zion ;  the  golden  candlesticks  with 
their  mystic  lights,  the  ever-burning  lamp  attesting  the 
presence  of  Jehovah ;  the  smoking  censers,  the  instru- 
ments of  music,  the  songs,  and  the  rhythmic  march  of 
our  processions,  recalling  the  sacred  dances  before  the 
ark.  He  would  find,  along  with  the  numberless  choris- 
ters, the  Levites,  clad  in  robes  of  white  linen,  and  the 
priests  in  their  glittering  vestments,  standing  around 
the  altar  like  a  grove  of  cedars  of  Lebanon.* 

*  Psalm  xcii.  12, 13. 


THE  JEWISH   CHUKOH  AND   THE   CHEISTIAN.       235 

He  would  gaze  upon  the  water  flowing  as  in  the  an- 
cient purifications,  but  witli  greater  efficacy,  and  the 
shew-bread  upon  the  altar,  and  those  religious  and  fra- 
ternal feasts  of  the  new  Passover ;  and  that  Lamb,  eaten 
without  the  breaking  of  a  bone  of  it,  Lamb  ever  immo- 
lated, and  yet  ever  immortal !  He  would  recognize  his 
Passover  festival  in  ours,  his  Sabbath  in  our  Lord's  day, 
and  how  many  other  features  taken  from  his  Church 
and  preserved  in  ours !  And  are  not  our  basilicas  and 
our  cathedrals  the  worthy  inheritors  of  Solomon's  tem- 
ple, and  the  more  glorious  temple  of  Zerubbabel  ? 

Some,  it  is  true,  of  these  ceremonies  of  the  Hebrew 
ritual,  so  rich  and  so  varied,  have  disappeared ;  the 
others  have  been  preserved  in  the  Catholic  ritual :  but 
still  we  can  say  of  them  all,  that  they  have  survived  in 
this  ritual,  survived  in  newness  of  life,  for  they  were  all 
symbolical,  all  prefigurative  of  the  future  worship  of 
Christian  humanity. 

But  however  great  the  ceremo7iies  may  be,  they  are 
only  the  outward  vestment  of  the  worship  ;  the  body  is 
not  there,  still  less  the  so  til.  The  body  of  worship  is 
the  sacrifice  ;  the  soul  is  'prayer.  Here,  then,  the  simi- 
larity, I  go  farther  and  say,  the  spiritual  identity  be- 
comes more  striking. 

The  sacrifices  of  the  Jews  !  Be  not  alarmed.  Gentle- 
men, lest  I  enter  here  into  details ;  we  will  come  back 
to  them  subsequently ;  for  I  shall  not  grow  weary  of 
the  Church  of  the  Jews  any  more  than  of  the  Church 
of  the  patriarchs,  and  I  shall  always  revert  to  the  sources 
of  our  Catholic  Church,  to  reinvigorate  myself  and 
you  with  the  spirit  of  our  origin.  For  the  present,  I 
shall  only  ask  myself.  What  is  the  origin  of  the  Chris- 
tian worship,  from  the  sacrificial  point  of  view  ?  and  I 
reply :  It  is  the  blood-ofiering  of  Judaism. 


236  DISCOUKSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

Oh !  what  an  odor  of  blood  in  the  temple  at  Jerusa- 
lem !  It  is  worship — the  expiation  of  sin  by  blood ;  it 
is  the  reconciliation  of  God  and  man  by  blood.  Saint 
Paul,  explaining  Moses,  says  in  his  epistle  to  the  He- 
brews, "And  by  the  law  are  almost  all  things  purged 
with  blood;  and  without  shedding  of  blood  is  no  remis- 
sion."* 

0  ye  plains  of  Bashan,  ye  broad  pastures  of  Gilead,  ye 
fertile  hills  of  Judea,  how  many  flocks  ye  were  wont  to 
feed !  But  your  lambs,  your  many  bulls,  did  not  exist 
merely  for  the  wealth  of  families  ;  every  year  they  were 
led  by  thousands  to  the  temple  at  Jerusalem ;  they  were 
brought  lowing  and  bleating  to  the  brazen  altar,  whose 
unquenchable  thirst  was  ahvays  crying  out  for  blood. 
The  priests,  exclusively  engaged,  so  to  speak,  in  this 
sacred  immolation,  raised  the  knife,  thrust  it  in,  and 
drew  it  reeking  from  the  bowels  of  these  victims.  Blood 
flowed  in  torrents  through  the  gutters  around  the  altar. 
But  never  did  the  sacred  stream  spring  up  that  could 
cleanse  the  world!  The  prophet — the  priest  of  the 
spirit,  elevated,  according  to  the  real  institute  of  Moses, 
above  these  priests  of  matter — the  prophet  said  to  them 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord :  "  Enough,  I  am  full  of  your 
burnt-oflPerings.  Will  I  eat  the  flesh  of  bulls,  or  drink 
the  blood  of  goats  ?  I  am  full."t  "  Cease,  ye  priests  of 
matter,  cease  ye  Pharisaic  priests,"  exclaims  Malachi, 
"  or  I  will  spread  duug  upon  your  faces,  even  the  dung  of 
your  solemn  feasts."|  There  was  something  more,  then, 
than  this  blood ;  the  prophet  knew  it,  he  told  it  in  bold 
language,  and  the  priests  listened  to  him. 

What  shall  wash  away  sin  ?  Ah,  in  these  times  we 
have  got  beyond  the  feeling  of  sin,  and  the  need  of  ex- 
piation.    You  remember.  Gentlemen,  the  hero  of  Shak- 

*  Hebrews,  ix.  22.  t  Isaiah,  i.  11 ;  Psalm,  1, 1.3.  $  Malachi,  ii.  3, 


THE   JEWISH  CHUECH  AND   THE   CHKISTIAN.       237 

speare's  tragedy,  wlio,  alone,  in  the  dead  of  night,  looks 
at  his  hand,  stained  with  innocent  blood,  and  cries : 

"  What  hands  are  here  ?   Ha !  they  pluck  out  mine  eyes  1 
Will  all  great  Neptune's  ocean  wash  this  blood 
Clean  from  my  hand?" 

Nothing  but  blood  can  cleanse  blood ;  it  is  only  the 
blood  of  a  God  that  can  wash  away  sin  ;  the  SAveet  savor 
of  the  blood  of  Christ  alone  that  can  remove  all  spots, 
ransom  all  crimes.  The  prophets  knew  this ;  they  lifted 
up  their  hands  to  the  future,  they  lifted  up  their  eyes  to 
the  hills,  and  pointed  to  a  cross ! 

Behold  the  true  blood !  Behold  the  sacred  stream 
that  has  purified  the  soul !  Behold  the  worship  of  the 
synagogue  restored  to  its  true  idea.  Jesus,  by  his  blood, 
has  taken  away  all  our  shame.  Worship  through 
blood,  expiation  by  blood,  is  what  makes  the  Christian. 
The  man  who  should  believe  in  the  divinity  of  Jesus 
Christ,  without  believing  in  the  efficacy  of  his  blood — 
in  the  necessity  of  Calvary,  in  the  only  and  sovereign 
expiation  of  the  cross,  that  man  would  no  longer  be  a 
Christian ;  he  would  no  longer  have  the  worship  of  the 
Catholic  Church ;  he  would  no  longer  have  the  worship 
through  blood,  the  atonement  for  sin  and  the  reconcili- 
ation with  God  through  blood.  The  Christian  is  the 
one  who  has  the  worship  oi  the  cross — the  worship  of 
Calvary;  and,  if  he  pursues  to  the  end  the  needful  un- 
derstanding of  this  blood,  this  Christian  is  the  Catholic 
who  goes  from  Calvary  to  the  altar,  and  says,  with  Saint 
Paul,  the  shedding  of  this  blood  is  no  longer  needed  for 
our  ransom  ;  "  for  by  one  ofiering  he  hath  perfected  for- 
ever them  that  are  sanctified."*     But  this  blood,  that  it 

*  Hebrews,  x.  14. 


238  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

may  be  applied  to  us,  must  fiow  over  us  individually,  as 
it  lias  flowed  over  the  race  of  man  universally.  "This 
bread  that  we  break,"  adds  St.  Paul,  "is  it  not  the 
communion  of  the  body  of  Christ  ?  The  cup  of  blessing 
which  we  bless,  is  it  not  the  communion  of  the  blood  of 
Christ  ?"*  That  is  the  worship  of  the  Catholic  Church 
— the  worship  of  the  blood  on  Calvary  and  the  blood  on 
the  altar. 

But,  however  high  the  sacrifice  may  be  above  the 
ceremonies,  it  has  need  of  a  soul,  a  voice  that  shall  in- 
terpret it :  this  voice  is  the  voice  of  prayer,  Now  the 
prayer  of  the  Jewish  Church  is  the  Psalms. 

Strange  people !  One  day  there  arose  among  them  a 
man  who  united  in  himself  all  their  faults  and  all 
excellencies,  a  man  more  astonishing  than  the  people 
itself — David!  A  nature  essentially  religious,  like  the 
Jewish  nature,  and,  like  it  again,  ardently,  profoundly 
passionate ;  thrown  upon  life  as  upon  a  stage,  amid  the 
adventures  of  the  warrior  and  the  visions  of  the  proph- 
et, under  the  touches,  so  diversified  and  yet  so  harmoni- 
ous, of  human  life  on  one  side  and  supernatural  revela- 
tion on  the  other,  David  resounded  like  a  harp,  and 
from  his  heart-strings,  now  wrung  with  anguish,  now 
thrilled  with  joy  and  happiness — from  his  heart,  open 
now  toward  earth,  and  anon  toward  heaven ;  from  the 
breast  of  the  adulterous  and  bloody  lover  of  Bathsheba, 
the  wife  of  Uriah ;  from  the  humiliated,  repentant,  and 
sanctified  breast  of  the  forefather  of  Jesus  Christ,  there 
came  forth  cries — 0  my  friends,  cries  that  have  not  their 
like  in  the  records  of  the  human  soul,  and  yet  to  which 
everything  in  the  human  soul  must  tend. 

Mankind  has  not  heard  their  like  before  nor  since,  and 
thus  it  is  that  it  never  wearies  of  repeating  them.  .  .  . 

*  1  Corinthians,  x.  16. 


THE  JEWISH  CHUKCH  AND   THE  CHRISTIAN.       239 

Tears  and  sobs — tears  of  the  heart  and  groanings  of  the 
soul !  Nights  spent  upon  that  guilty  couch,  wet  with 
his  tears,  clutched  in  his  arms,  gnashed  upon  by  his 
teeth,  upon  which  he  tosses  in  the  thorns  of  remorse  or 
the  thorns  of  temptation !  Nights  spent  in  prayer 
upon  that  guilty  and  solitary  couch,  on  that  penitent 
couch  from  which  he  now  rises,  in  the  sweet  and  happy 
calm  of  pardon  won,  with  quivering  lips,  with  trembling 
bones  :  "All  my  bones  shall  say,  Lord,  who  is  like  unto 
thee  !"* — to  thee  who  leadest  me  down  to  the  pit,  who 
leadest  me  back  from  death  unto  life,  from  hell  unto 
heaven ! 

Behold  the  pra3'er  of  the  Jew  who  thought  but  of 
himself,  his  adulteries,  his  murders,  his  son  dead  at 
eight  days  old,  to  whose  icy  feet  his  lips  were  pressed,  of 
his  throne  contested  by  an  enemy,  of  the  grand  hopes 
of  his  future,  that  "  of  the  fruit  of  his  loins  should  be 
raised  up  Christ  to  sit  u2:>on  the  throne."f  And  while 
thus  pouring  out  his  soul,  while  making  the  confession 
of  his  life,  this  man  becomes,  as  he  has  so  well  been 
named,  "  the  prince  of  prayer !" 

Yes;  the  prince  of  individual,  the  prince  of  universal 
prayer.  Gaze  toward  the  setting  of  the  sun,  listen  to- 
ward the  rising  thereof,  wherever  the  Catholic  Church 
is  to  be  found — what  do  I  say? — wherever  the  syna- 
gogue, wherever  the  place  of  Christian  worship  is  to  be 
found,  whether  in  the  fold  of  the  schismatic  but  Chris- 
tian East,  or  in  the  fold  of  Protestantism — everywhere 
I  hear  lifted  up  the  grand  prayer  of  the  Psalms  of  Da- 
vid !  All  mankind  is  praying  with  his  words,  weeping 
with  his  tears,  hoping  with  his  hopes.  David  had  said, 
"  My  praise  shall  be  of  thee,  in  the  great  congregation."! 
And  at  the  same  time,  outside  of  the  temples,  in  the 

*  Ppalm  sxxv.  10.  +  Acts,  ii.  30.  t  Psalm  xxii.  25. 


24:0  DISCOURSES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

sanctuary  of  each  liouseliold,  behold  that  young  man 
struggling  against  his  youthful  passions,  that  old  man 
shuddering  before  the  open  grave,  that  wife,  that 
mother,  that  poor  weeping  woman,  whose  tears  have 
been  her  meat  in  the  night-season — what  do  their  lips 
murmur  ?  Jfiserere  mei,  Dens  !  "  Have  mercy  upon  me, 
0  God,  according  to  thy  loving  kindness."  "  Out  of 
the  depths  have  I  called  unto  thee,  0  Lord !  Lord,  hear 
my  voice!  If  thou.  Lord,  shouldst  mark  iniquities, 
0  Lord,  who  shall  stand  ?  But  thou  art  good ;  more 
than  in  any  human  heart,  with  thee  there  is  mercy,  and 
with  thee  is  plenteous  redemption."* 

Let  us,  then,  my  friends,  remember  Israel  and  Zion, 
and,  summing  up  Israel  and  Zion  in  one  great  and  emi- 
nently practical  fact,  let  us  remember  the  BiUe.  Israel 
is  not  the  tents  of  Shem,  not  the  tabernacles  of  the  des- 
ert, not  the  temples  of  Solomon  and  Zerub babel.  All 
these  have  vanished  away.  What  gives  Israel  its  un- 
failing life  is  its  God  and  its  Bible.  Israel  has  em- 
bodied itself  in  its  Bible ;  the  whole  of  it  is  the  work  of 
Israel ;  and  that,  says  Saint  Paul,  is  its  crowning 
glory,  t 

The  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Catholic  Church, 
has  not  the  gift  of  inspiratio7i.  We  have  not  among 
us  a  single  sage,  a  single  inspired  pontiif  that  has  the 
power,  even  had  he  the  wish,  to  write  a  line  that  should 
be  the  word  of  God.  AVe  have  pontiffs,  doctors,  coun- 
cils assisted  by  God,  but  not  insjoired  by  him ;  assisted 
to  study,  to  understand,  to  explain  the  inspired  word 
of  the  Church  of  the  Jews,  the  word  written,  from  the 
first  book  of  Genesis  to  the  last  word  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, by  a  Jewish  pen !  The  Jewish  Church,  from 
the  prophets  to  the  apostles,  has  been  the  only  mouth 

*  Psalms,  li,  1 ;  cxxx.  1,  2,  3,  7.  t  Romans,  iii.  2. 


THE  JEWISH  CHURCH  AND  THE  CHRISTIAN.      241 

inspired  of  God,  of  whose  utterances  it  could  be  said, 
"  The  mouth  of  the  Lord  hath  spoken  them/'* 

And  yet  what  do  we  do  with  the  Bible  ?  Is  this  book 
the  object  of  our  study,  our  preaching,  our  teaching  ? 
Is  it  the  light  that  shines  upon  the  family,  the  State, 
the  soul  ?  Let  it  not  be  said  to  me  :  The  Church  pro- 
hibits the  reading  of  the  Bible.  That  is  a  terrible  cal- 
umny !  The  early  Christians  read  the  Bible  and  medi- 
tated upon  it  day  and  night,  and  the  more  zealous  ones 
learnt  it  from  beginning  to  end  by  heart.  The  early 
Christian  priests  had  two  equally  sacred  compartments 
in  their  tabernacle,  the  one  for  the  eucharist,  the  food 
of  the  heart,  the  other  for  the  Bible,  the  food  of  the 
mind.  Since  when  has  the  Church  changed?  Since 
when  has  the  spirit  of  the  Church  been  divided  against 
the  spirit  of  the  Church  ?  It  is  a  terrible  calumny,  I 
repeat.  What  the  Church  does  forbid,  is  reading  it 
without  legitimate  precautions,  reading  it  without  the 
spirit  of  docility,  in  a  spirit  of  rebellion,  heresy,  and 
schism.  But  reading,  meditating  upon  the  Scriptures, 
is  evermore  the  true  spirit  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ! 

What  then  ?  Do  we  read  the  Bible  ?  Do  we  not  too 
often  seek  our  knowledge  in  merely  profane  authors,  in 
the  discoveries  of  man  ?  And  when  we  refer  to  the 
traditions  of  the  Church,  do  we  not  practically  give  the 
first  place  to  mere  church-doctors  I  No  one  venerates 
more  than  I  do  the  Fathers  of  the  Church — Athana- 
sius,  Basil,  Augustine ;  the  great  school-men  of  the 
middle  ages — Thomas  Aquinas,  Bonaventura,  Scotus ; 
the  great  modern  theologians — I  need  name  only  the 
king  of  them  all,  Bossuet !  Yes.  But  Bossuet,  Scotus, 
Bonaventura,  Thomas  Aquinas,  Basil,  Athanasius,  and 
all  the  rest,  are  not  the  hooh.    Give  me  the  looky  the  in- 

*  leaiah,  xl.  5. 
11 


242  DISCOURSES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

spired  word  !  Let  me  rest  upon  the  foundation  of  tlie 
apostles  and  the  prophets ;  let  my  thirsty  roots  pene- 
trate even  to  the  fatness  of  the  fruitful  olive-tree.  The 
Bible,  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the  light  of  the  family,  of 
the  nation,  of  the  soul,  this  is  the  book  of  the  Church ! 
And  our  branches  will  be  thin,  and  our  foliage  with- 
ered, and  our  blossoms  will  fall  before  they  can  bear 
fruit,  as  long  as  we  do  not  steep  them  afresh  in  the 
knowledge,  in  the  light,  in  the  practice  of  this  divine 
book ! 

While  rationalism,  this  modern  force  from  the  clois- 
ters of  German  universities,  is  trying  to  find  its  way 
into  the  book  independently  of  the  Church  and  of  the 
Spirit  that  inspired  it,  thereby  transforming  it  into  one 
of  the  most  active  and  formidable  poisons,  cormptio 
optimi  jjessima  ;  while  rationalism  is  doing  this  scholar- 
like but  mischievous  work,  we  shut  the  book,  or  rather 
we  do  not  open  it,  nor  seek  in  it  for  a  remedy. 

"  I  looked,"  said  Ezekiel,  "  and  behold  a  hand  was 
stretched  out  to  me  from  heaven  ;  and  lo  !  a  mysterious 
book.  It  was  written  within  and  without — without,  in 
an  earthly  language,  and  in  human  characters;  and 
within,  in  the  language  of  heaven,  and  in  letters  from 
the  hand  of  God.  It  was  a  closed  book,  and  the  hand 
reached  it  forth  to  me ;  and  a  voice  said :  Eat  this  book  V 
Woe  to  him  who,  able  to  read  it,  reads  it  not !  But  woe 
also  to  him  who  reads  it  only  with  the  eye  of  a  haughty 
intellect !  It  must  be  eaten  with  the  heart.  "  0  son  of 
man,  rise  and  eat  this  book !  And  I  took  the  book,  and 
it  was  in  my  mouth  as  honey  for  sweetness ;  and  I  was 
filled  with  its  substance ;  and  the  voice  said  to  me, 
again.  Son  of  man,  go,  get  thee  to  the  house  of  Israel, 
and  speak  with  my  words  unto  them."f 

*  Ezekiel,  ii.  3. 


THE  JEWISH   CHUKCH   AND   THE  CHRISTIAN.       243 

Rise,  then,  0  Cliurcli  of  Christ !  Rise  as  one  man  ! 
Take  the  book  from  the  divine  hand  that  offers  it, 
meditate  upon  it  with  your  understanding,  devour  it 
with  your  love  and  your  heart,  and  then  shall  you  be 
the  masters  of  the  world  ;  you  shall  speak  to  the  children 
of  idolatry ;  the  world  shall  hear  you,  for  your  lips 
shall  be  no  longer  your  own,  but  God's !  The  lips  of 
the  Christian  soul  are  for  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  it 
is  that  word  which  they  never  cease  to  declare  ! 


LECTURE    SIXTH. 
January  3,  1869. 


CONFLICT  BETWEEN  THE  LETTER  AND  THE 
SPIRIT,  IN  THE  JEAVISH   CHURCH. 

The  Letter  hillethy  lut  the  Spirit  giveth  life.^  I  take 
this  text  of  Saint  Paul  as  the  starting-point  and  sum- 
mary of  this  whole  discourse.  I  have  already  remarked 
in  the  Jewish  Church  two  elements  mutually  opposed, 
but  alike  necessary  to  the  object  of  this  Church :  an 
element  of  separation,  in  order  to  the  conservation  of 
the  sacred  deposit  of  revelation,  and  an  element  of  uni- 
versality, in  order  to  the  diffusion  of  this  revelation 
among  all  mankind.  These  two  elements  I  call,  in  the 
words  of  the  apostle,  the  letter  and  the  spirit.  By  the 
letter,  the  Bible,  that  is,  the  Old  Testament,  tends  to 
separation ;  by  the  spirit,  it  tends  to  universality.  The 
intestine  struggle  between  these  two  elements  makes  up 
the  whole  interior  history  of  Judaism ;  and  the  open 
rupture  between  them,  in  the  time  of  Christ,  is  the 
commencement  of  the  Christian  era,  and  the  inaugura- 
tion of  the  Catholic  Church.  As  sons  of  this  holy  and 
infallible  Church,  we  no  longer  need  to  fear  the  tri- 
umph of  the  letter ;  but  as  members  of  a  Church  com- 
posed and  governed,  after  all,  by  fallible  and  sinful  men, 
we  ought  not  to  pass  over  its  internal  conflicts.    Let  us, 

*  2  Corinthians,  iii.  6. 


THE  LETTER  AND  THE   SPIRIT.  245 

then,  obserye  the  instrnctiye  spectacle  of  the  combats 
between  the  letter  and  the  spirit  within  the  pale  of  Ju- 
daism, considering  in  order,  in  the  Jewish  Church,  the 
representatives  of  the  letter  and  the  representatives  of 
the  spirit. 

I.  The  representatives  of  the  letter. — These  were  the 
hings  and  the  priests.  The  kings  represented  it  in  pol- 
itics— the  priests,  in  religion. 

1.  David  exclaimed,  "He  shall  have  dominion  also 
from  sea  to  sea,  and  from  the  river  unto  the  ends  of  the 

earth Yea,  all  kings  shall  fall  down  before  him, 

all  nations  shall  serve  him."*  And  beholding,  in  this 
radiant  future,  that  one  of  his  descendants,  whom  he 
called  the  Anointed,  the  Christ,  as  above  all  others,  he 
said,  or  rather  God  said  through  him,  "  Sit  thou  at  my 
right  hand  until  I  make  thine  enemies  thy  footstool. 
Kule  thou,  and  thy  people  shall  be  willing  in  the  day  of 
thy  power,  in  the  beauties  of  holiness  from  the  womb 
of  the  morning:  thou  hast  the  dew  of  thy  youth." f 

In  this  throne  of  the  son  of  David  and  of  the  Son  of 
God,  there  were,  then,  two  royalties  united:  the  tem- 
poral kingdom,  that  should  reign  over  the  house  of 
Jacob,  restricted  to  the  narrow  limits  of  its  own  blood, 
— "  He  shall  reign  over  the  house  of  Jacob," — and  the 
kingdom  that  should  extend  over  all  mankind  with- 
in the  broad  bounds  of  the  faith  of  Abraham — "  Of  his 
kingdom  there  shall  be  no  end."J; 

The  danger  was  of  confounding  these  two  kingdoms, 
and,  as  always  happens  in  such  cases,  of  absorbing  the 
heavenly  kingdom  in  the  earthly.  It  was  to  this  dan- 
ger that  the  synagogue  succumbed. 

In  a  national  Church,  or  in  a  religious  nation,  noth- 
ing is  easier,  nothing  more  fatal,  than  this  confusion  be- 

*  PBalm  Ixxii.  8, 11.  t  Pealm  ex.  1-3.  %  Luke,  i.  33. 


246  DISCOURSES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

tween  religions  forms  and  political  forms.  Great  even 
in  its  merely  hnman  character — for  it  is  human  both  in 
its  function  and  in  its  origin — the  business  of  govern- 
ment becomes  greater  yet  when  it  gravitates  toward 
the  heavenly  spheres  of  morality  and  religion;  but  re- 
ligion belittles  itself,  abdicates  its  own  dignity,  shocks 
all  the  instincts  of  human  nature,  and  at  the  same 
time  wounds  all  the  attributes  of  divine  majesty,  when 
it  puts  on  the  forms  of  politics,  catches  up  its  ideas  and 
characteristics,  and  pursues  its  paltry  interests. 

Yet  such  was  the  kingdom  that  the  kings  and  their 
followers  perpetually  dreamed  of  bestowing  upon  hu- 
manity. For  a  single  moment,  under  David,  the  pro- 
phetic ideal  briefly  seen  and  described  by  this  prophet- 
king,  shines  with  a  pure  lustre.  But  it  soon  veils  itself 
behind  the  worldly,  let  us  say  the  heathen,  ideal  of 
Solomon. 

Solomon  was  a  great  king,  especially  at  the  outset; 
he  was  always  great,  even  in  his  errors  and  his  crimes. 
But,  intoxicated  with  the  knowledge  of  nature  that  he 
possessed,  according  to  the  inspired  word,  "from  the 
cedar  of  Lebanon  to  the  hyssop  that  groweth  on  the 
wall,"  Solomon,  not  content  with  the  knowledge  that 
lifteth  up  to  God,  wished  also  to  possess  all  the  riches 
and  all  the  amorous  delights  of  earth ;  he  built  palaces 
little  like  the  palm-tree  beneath  which  Deborah  judged 
Israel,  or  the  tents  under  which  David  and  his  soldiers 
camped ;  palaces  so  sumptuous  that  the  queen  of  Sheba 
came  from  far  Arabia  to  admire  them.  He  had  harems 
filled  with  women,  mostly  strangers  and  idolaters : 
seven  hundred  sultanas  and  three  hundred  concubines  ! 
And  then,  this  intoxication,  rising — I  will  not  say  from 
his  heart,  but  from  his  senses,  to  his  reason — he  fell 
down  with  his  wives  at  the  feet  of  all  their  idols,  ven- 


THE  LETTER  AND   THE   SPIRIT.  247 

crating,  under  these  poetical  symbols,  that  great  nature 
which  is  the  handiwork  of  God,  yet  which  so  easily 
usurps  the  place  of  its  Creator ! 

Such  was  the  spectacle  presented  by  Jerusalem  under 
David's  successor.  A  revolting  spectacle,  but  extenu- 
ated, at  least  during  the  reign  of  Solomon  himself,  by  a 
glory  which  he  was  not  mighty  enough  to  bequeath  to 
his  heirs  in  Judah,  and  his  rivals  in  Israel.  He  be- 
queathed to  them  only  his  pride,  his  sensuality,  and  his 
idolatries,  and  when  the  two  hostile  but  kindred  mon- 
archies finally  succumbed  beneath  the  blows  of  those 
powerful  neighbors,  those  northern  conquerors,  whose 
favors  they  had  so  often  courted,  whose  arms  they 
had  so  often  defied,  they  left  behind  them,  in  the 
history  of  the  holy  people,  only  a  long  trail  of  blood 
and  filth. 

That  is  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  the  kingdom  of 
Israel ;  that  is  what  w^as  proposed  to  the  world  under 
the  name  of  the  kingdom  of  God ! 

The  Jews  had  been  so  perverted  by  their  kings,  or 
rather — let  us  not  be  unjust  to  the  kings — the  Jews  had 
been  so  perverted  by  their  national  pride,  that  they 
could  not  rid  themselves  of  this  gross  ideal,  and  they 
forever  dreamed  of  ruling  over  the  nations,  under  the 
desecrated  name  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  with  the  sword 
and  the  rod  of  iron.  When  Jesus,  their  true  Messiah, 
came  to  them,  they  knew  him  not ;  and  this  was,  in  a 
great  measure,  because  he  had  rejected  this  kingdom, 
too  narrow  and  too  low  for  him,  and  because  he  had  pro- 
claimed the  true  principle  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  the 
spiritual  kingdom  which  is  in  the  world,  but  "not  of 
the  world,"  a  spiritual  kingdom  that  "conies  to  bear 
witness  to  the  truth."*     They  preferred  the   seditious 

*  John,  xviii.  36,  37. 


248  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

Barabbas,  who  had  fought  and  shed  blood  in  the  streets 
of  Jerusalem  to  deliver  them  from  the  Romans ;  they 
preferred  all  the  false  messiahs,  all  the  lying,  impotent 
christs,  who  ended  their  senseless  intrigues  by  bringing 
on  the  ruin  of  the  nation,  the  city,  and  the  temple  that 
they  pretended  to  save. 

Break,  then,  thou  vase  of  national  Judaism,  that 
God,  by  the  hand  of  Moses,  had  fashioned  Avith  such 
loving  care ;  royal,  priestly  vase,  be  broken,  since  thou 
wouldst  have  it  so !  Thou  shouldst  have  preserved  for 
all  men  the  treasures  of  religious  life ;  thou  hast  chosen 
rather  to  shut  thyself  up  in  jealous  selfishness;  be 
broken,  and  from  thy  scattered  fragments  let  that  fra- 
grant balm  go  forth,  which  is  for  the  healing  of  the 
nations ! 

"The  vase  was  broken,"  says  the  Gospel,  "and  the 
house  was  filled  with  the  odor  of  the  ointment."* 

2.  What  the  kings  did  in  politics  the  priests  did  in 
religion.  In  truth,  if  it  is  a  fatal  error  to  confound  re- 
ligious and  political  forms,  it  is  a  still  more  terrible 
blunder  to  confound,  in  religion  itself,  the  accidental, 
accessory  forms  with  the  essential  ones.  Every  religion, 
especially  the  true,  the  Christian  religion,  which  ex- 
tends back  to  Moses,  Abraham,  Adam,  is  not  merely  a 
religious  idea,  a  religious  sentiment,  as  contemporary 
rationalism  is  pleased  to  say.  It  is  a  fact,  and  therefore 
it  has  positive  forms ;  it  is  a  living  fact,  and  therefore  it 
has  a  settled  organization.  But  the  religious  fact,  ex- 
isting in  time  and  space,  should  take  into  account  the 
conditions  of  space,  so  diversified,  and  the  conditions  of 
time,  so  changeful.  Its  organization  is  to  exercise  its 
functions  amid  the  most  dissimilar,  even  the  most  con- 
tradictory surroundings.    Hence,  besides  the  substantial 

*  Johu,  xii.  3. 


THE  LETTER  AND   THE  SPIRIT.  249 

and  permanent  forms,  the  accessory  and  shifting  forms, 
with  which  the  former  are,  so  to  speak,  invested,  ac- 
cording to  the  exigencies  of  race  or  epoch.  By  en- 
deavoring to  confound  religion  with  its  accessory  forms, 
peculiar  to  such  and  such  a  country  and  race,  Ave  should 
cut  it  off  from  the  great  current  of  humanity  in  the  pres- 
ent. By  endeavoring  to  bind  it  down  to  worn-out  forms, 
we  should  cut  it  off  from  the  great  current  of  humanity  in 
the  future.  We  should  be  forgetting  what  Saint  Paul  said 
to  the  old  synagogue :  "  That  which  waxeth  old  is  ready 
to  vanish  awa}\"*  We  could  not  render  religious  unity 
a  w^orse  service.  Now,  it  w^as  on  this  very  rock  that 
the  Jewish  priesthood  made  shipwreck. 

I  would  not  speak  of  this  priesthood  otherwise  than 
with  great  respect.  Last  Sunday  we  breathed  the  per- 
fume of  its  censers,  and  listened  to  the  harmony  of  its 
chants.  The  rod  of  Aaron  had  not  budded  for  nothing 
in  its  hands,  and  in  its  tabernacle  we  have  almost 
adored  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ  prefigured  in  its  manna, 
the  word  of  Jesus  Christ  anticipated  in  its  Decalogue. 
But,  after  all,  however  respectable  the  Levitical  priest- 
hood might  have  been  in  its  origin  and  in  its  essence, 
it  no  longer  deserves  our  respect  in  the  corruption  that 
came  over  it  toward  the  end — at  least  over  the  greater 
part  of  its  members.  This  corruption  has  retained  its 
special  name,  Pharisaism. 

Is  Pharisaism  hypocrisy?  No;  whatever  our  diction- 
ary may  sa}^,  Pharisaism  is  not,  in  the  biblical  sense, 
hj^pocrisy,  unless  we  mean  that  most  subtle  form  of 
hypocrisy,  the  most  innocent  and  at  the  same  time  the 
most  fatal — the  hypocrisy  that  knows  not  itself,  ai  d 
considers  itself  sincerity.  Jesus  often  said,  ''  Pharisees, 
hypocrites !"  but  he  explained  this  word  by  another-r 

*  Hebrews,  viii.  13. 
11* 


250  DISCOURSES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

"  thou  blind  Pharisee  I"  And  the  great  Apostle  Panl, 
himself  a  Pharisee,  brought  up,  as  he  says,  at  the  feet 
of  the  Pharisee  Gamaliel,  pays  them  this  remarkable 
tribute,  that  they  really  had  "  a  zeal  for  God,  but  not 
according  to  knowledge."* 

Pharisaism,  then,  in  its  deepest  aspect,  is  religious 
blindness — the  blindness  of  priests  who  are  put  in  trust 
with  the  letter,  who  think  that  the  less  they  explain  it, 
the  safer  they  keep  it;  a  blindness  that  extends  to 
every  point  of  the  sacred  deposit ;  blindness  in  doctrine 
— the  predominance  of  formula  oyer  truth ;  blindness 
in  morals — the  predominance  of  outward  works  over 
inward  righteousness;  blindness  in  worship — the  pre- 
dominance of  outward  rites  over  religious  feeling. 

Blindness  in  doctrine. — The  Pharisees  taught  the 
truth.  "  The  Scribes  and  Pharisees  sit  in  Moses'  seat," 
said  Jesus  Christ ;  "  believe  what  they  say,  but  do  not 
what  they  do.  "t  There  is  no  revealed  idea,  enlighten- 
ing and  quickening  the  world,  without  a  word  to  con- 
tain it — lucerna  verhu7n  hiiwi,  Domine.X  The  Lord's 
light  is  in  a  lamp.  But  if  the  word  closes  itself  to- 
gether, and  shuts  up  the  idea  as  in  a  narrow  and  jealous 
prison — if  it  darkens  it,  stifles  it — that  is  Pharisaism. 
This  is  what  the  Apostle  Paul  called  keeping  the  truth, 
but  keeping  it  captive  in  unrighteousness. §  This  is  the 
thing  which  extorted  from  the  mild  lips  of  the  Saviour 
Jesus  that  terrible  anathema,  "  Woe  unto  you !  Ye  have 
taken  away  the  key  of  knowledge ;  for  ye  enter  not  in 
yourselves,  and  them  that  are  entering  in  ye  hinder. || 
Woe  unto  you !" 

In  morals,  it  is  outward  works,  the  multiplicity  of 
human  observances,  piled  up — a  miserable  and  tyranni- 

*  Romans,  x.  2.  t  Matthew,  xxiii.  2.  %  Pealm  cxix.  105. 

I  Romans,  i.  18.  I  Lnke,  xi.  52. 


THE   LETTER  AND  THE   SPIRIT.  251 

cal  burden  upon  the  conscience,  making  it  forget,  in 
unwholesome  dreams,  that  it  is  an  honest  man's,  a 
Christian's  conscience.  The  Pharisees  said  to  Jesus 
Christ,  "  Why  do  not  thy  disciples  wash  their  hands  be- 
fore eating,  according  to  the  tradition  of  the  elders  ?" 
And  the  Saviour  answered  them,  "  Why  do  ye  trample 
under  foot  the  commandments  of  God  to  keep  the  com- 
mandments of  man  ?"* 

As  to  the  rites,  they  are  necessary  in  worship,  as 
formulas  are  necessary  in  doctrine — woe  to  him  who 
rends  asunder  the  formulas  of  biblical  revelation  or  the 
formulas  of  the  Church's  definition  ! — as  works  are  ne- 
cessary to  morality — woe  to  him  who  slumbers  in  a 
barren,  dead  faith,  without  works  ! 

Worship !  why,  it  is  the  very  blossoming  of  the  reli- 
gious soul;  the  emotion  of  the  heart  ascending  fragrant 
and  harmonious  into  the  presence  of  God.  It  is  the 
action  from  within  outward  ;  it  is  also  the  reaction,  no 
less  legitimate,  no  less  salutary,  from  without  inward. 
The  ritual  arouses  religious  sentiment,  gives  birth  to 
inspiration  in  the  conscience  and  the  heart. 

But  when  there  is  no  longer  any  religious  feeling, 
when  the  heart  and  the  conscience  are  bending  under 
the  burden  of  outward  observances,  "  Full  well,"'  says 
Christ,  again — for  the  Gospel  is  full  of  these  things,  the 
Gospel  is  the  perpetual  condemnation  of  Pharisaism — 
"  full  well  did  Isaiah  prophesy  of  you.  This  people  hon- 
oreth  me  with  lips  and  hands,  but  their  heart  is  far 
from  me."t 

This  is  the  yoke  of  which  Saint  Peter  spoke — "  a  yoke 
put  upon  the  neck  of  the  disciples  which  neither  our 
fathers  nor  we  were  able  to  bear."J:  This  is  the  smoth- 
ered and  oppressed  inspiration  that  they  thought  to  send 

*  Matthew,  xv.  1-6.  t  Ibid.,  xv.  7.  %  Acts,  xv.  10. 


252  DISCOURSES   OF   FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

fortli  over  the  face  of  the  earth  to  renew  it.  This  is 
Judaism — not  the  Judaism  of  Moses,  but  the  worn-out 
Judaism  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees !  When  the 
whole  world,  by  the  eloquent  voices  of  Greece  and  Rome, 
was  calling  on  the  East  for  deliverers ;  when  by  the  agita- 
tion of  barbarian  tribes,'  moving,  all  at  once,  in  the  depths 
of  Germany  and  Scythia,  the  world  was  craving  light 
and  civilization — that  is  what  tliey  oifered  it !  Judaism 
made  itself  more  and  more  of  an  impossibility  the  more 
the  world  had  need  of  it ;  blind  and  fanatical  Pharisaism 
threw  itself  across  the  threshold  of  the  kingdom  of  heav- 
en, to  prevent  the  generations  of  man  from  entering ! 

Get  ye  behind  me,  ye  men  of  the  letter !  get  ye  be- 
hind me,  ye  foes  of  the  human  race !  "  They  are  con- 
trary to  all  men,"  as  Saint  Paul  has  said.  And  thou. 
Lord  Jesus,  arise,  my  Saviour  and  my  Lord — thou  who 
in  all  thy  gentle  life  wast  but  twice  in  anger!  .  .  .  Jesus 
had  no  wrath  against  poor  sinners ;  he  sat  at  their 
table,  and  when  the  adulterous  woman  fell  at  his  feet, 
blushing  with  shame  and  weeping  with  remorse,  he 
lifted  her  up,  only  to  absolve  her :  Go  in  peace  and  sin 
no  more  !  He  had  no  anger  against  heretics  and  schis- 
matics ;  he  sat  upon  Jacob's  well  beside  the  Samaritan 
woman,  and  announced  to  her,  with  the  salvation  which 
is  of  the  Jews,  the  worship  which  is  in  spirit  and  in 
truth.  But  twice  was  Jesus  angry :  once,  scourge  in 
hand,  against  those  who  sold  the  things  of  God  in  the 
temple;  once,  anathema  in  mouth,  against  those  who 
perverted  the  things  of  God  in  the  law. 

Eise  then,  meek  Lamb,  in  thy  pacific  wrath  against  the 
enemies  of  all  men  and  against  the  real  enemies  of  the 
kingdom  of  God ;  rise,  and  drive  them  from  the  temple! 

Thus  it  was  that  the  synagogue  perished,  and  the 
Christian  Church  arose. 


THE  LETTER  AND   THE   SPIRIT.  253 

II.  The  r€inese7itativ€S  of  the  spirit. — I  have  told  yon, 
and  you  know  already,  that  we  have  nothing  to  fear 
from  the  triumphs  of  the  letter.  Still,  we  cannot  ignore 
the  combats,  the  temptations,  not  merely  of  every  priest, 
but  of  all  piety ;  the  temptation  of  believers  as  well  as 
priests  is  to  the  predominance  of  the  letter  over  the 
S2nrit.  Let  us  glorify  God  for  having  suffered  us  to  be 
born  in  an  infallible  and  holy  Church,  which  Jesus 
Christ  protects  and  shall  protect  until  the  final  accom- 
plishment of  his  work,  through  succeeding  ages,  against 
all  the  errors  of  our  mind  and  all  the  weaknesses  of  our 
will ! 

But  what  voice  is  this  that  strikes  upon  my  ear  ?  It 
is  no  longer  the  harsh  voice  of  earthly  dominion  or 
carnal  legislation  ;  still,  it  is  not  a  Christian  voice,  not 
the  voice  of  Jesus  Christ  that  I  was  repeating  just  now ; 
and  yet,  although  long  before  Jesus  Christ,  how  it  resem- 
bles him ! 

"Hear,"  says  the  voice,  "hear  the  word  of  the  Lord, 
ye  rulers  of  Sodom ;  give  ear  unto  the  law  of  our  God, 
ye  people  of  Gomorrah,"  and  yet  it  is  speaking  of  the 
Church  of  Sion !  "  To  what  purpose  is  the  multitude 
of  your  sacrifices  unto  me  ?  I  am  full  of  the  burnt- 
offerings  of  rams,  and  the  fat  of  fed  beasts ;  and  I  de- 
light not  in  the  blood  of  bullocks,  or  of  rams,  or  of  he- 
goats  ;  your  new  moons  and  your  appointed  feasts  my 
soul  hateth ;  they  are  a  trouble  unto  me ;  I  am  weary 
to  bear  them ;  your  incense  is  an  abomination  unto  me. 
When  ye  spread  forth  your  hands,  I  will  hide  my  eyes 
from  you ;  yea,  when  ye  make  many  prayers,  I  will  not 
hear !  Wash  you  ;  make  you  clean  ;  put  away  the  evil 
of  your  doings;  cease  to  do  evil;  learn  to  do  well;  seek 
judgment,  relieve  the  oppressed;  judge  the  fatherless, 
plead  for  the  widow.     Come  now,  and  let  us  reason  to- 


254  DISCOUKSES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

gether,  saitli  the  Lord.  Though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet, 
they  shall  be  white  as  snow  !"* 

This  is  the  voice  of  the  religion  of  Moses,  in  all  its 
energy  and  all  its  clearness.  What  a  difference  between 
it  and  Pharisaism,  of  which  I  have  just  spoken,  that 
letter  which  stifled,  with  its  fatal  constrictions,  the 
reason,  the  conscience,  and  the  heart!  And  how  like 
the  Gospel,  that  law  of  Jesus  Christ  which  has  but  two 
commandments;  an  insatiable  hunger,  an  unquench- 
able thirst  after  righteousness,  and  a  heart  eyer  open  in 
compassion !  Ah !  I  feel  that  we  have  here  no  longer  a 
local  law,  a  national  organization,  a  restricted  and  tem- 
porary code,  we  have  the  law  of  all  nations  and  all  ages, 
and  it  needs  but  the  breath  of  Saint  Paul  to  w^aft  it 
from  one  end  of  the  world  to  the  other. 

But  the  voice  of  the  spirit  continues,  and  this  time  it 
no  longer  speaks  of  the  carnal  laiv,  but  of  the  earthly 
Tcingdom:  "  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days, 
that  the  mountain  of  the  Lord's  house  shall  be  estab- 
lished in  the  top  of  the  mountains,  and  shall  be  ex- 
alted above  the  hills,  and  all  nations  shall  flow  unto  it. 
And  many  nations  shall  go  and  say  :  Come  ye,  and  let 
us  go  up  unto  the  mountain  of  the  Lord,  to  the  house 
of  the  God  of  Jacob ;  and  he  shall  teach  us  of  his  ways, 
and  we  will  walk  in  his  paths ;  for  out  of  Zion  shall  go 
forth  the  law,  and  the  word  of  the  Lord  from  Jerusa- 
lem. Come,  let  us  beat  our  swords  into  ploughshares, 
and  our  spears  into  pruning-hooks,  for  the  Anointed  of 
the  Lord  shall  reign  in  justice  and  peace,  all  the  idols 
shall  be  utterly  abolished,  and  the  Lord  alone  shall  be 
exalted  in  that  day  !"t 

That  is  the  future  which  the  kings  and  their  succes- 

♦  Isaiah,  i.  10-18.  ♦  IMd.,  il. 


THE  LETTER  AND   THE   SPIRIT.    ^  255 

sors  had  marred.  Mark  it  well,  it  is  not  oppression,  it 
is  deliverance !  It  is  the  property  of  the  letter  to  pre- 
vail by  force,  that  is  its  necessity.  It  has  no  other  way, 
if  that  is  indeed  a  way.  It  is  the  property  of  the  spirit 
to  appeal  therefrom  to  the  liberty  of  man,  to  the  liberty 
of  God.  "  Where  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there  is  lib- 
erty." That  is  why  I  do  not  behold  in  the  hands  of  the 
Messiah  a  blood-stained  sword ;  bat  I  see  the  nations 
rising  spontaneously  like  the  sea  murmuring  in  its 
depths;  all  nations  shall  flow  unto  him;  they  arise, 
they  ascend  toward  the  God  of  Jacob ;  no  subjugation, 
but  emancipation ;  the  reign,  not  of  Messiah  the  con- 
queror, but  of  Messiah  the  deliverer. 

But,  you  will  ask  me,  what  is  this  voice  that 
preaches  to  priests  the  spiritual  kingdom,  and  to 
kings  and  nations  the  divine  royalty?  The  voice 
shall  tell  its  own  story ;  it  shall  give  its  origin  and  mis- 
sion. 

It  was  "in  the  year  that  king  Uzziah  died,"  that 
Isaiah  beheld  in  the  temple  the  vision  of  Jehovah,  high 
and  lifted  up,  and  heard  the  continual  cry  of  tlie  sera- 
phim, Holy,  holy,  holy !  And  at  the  voice  the  settled 
columns  of  the  temple  heaved  and  rocked,  and  the 
house  was  filled  with  smoke.  Then  said  Isaiah,  "  Woe 
is  me !  for  I  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips,  and  I  dwell  in 
the  midst  of  a  people  of  unclean  lips ;  for  mine  eyes 
have  seen  the  King  the  Lord  of  hosts."  Then  flew  one 
of  the  seraphim  unto  me,  having  a  live  coal  in  his 
hand,  which  he  had  taken  with  the  tongs  from  off  the 
altar ;  and  he  laid  it  on  my  mouth,  and  said,  "  Lo,  this 
hath  touched  thy  lips ;  and  thine  iniquity  is  taken 
away,  thy  sin  is  purged."  And  I  heard  the  voice  of  the 
Lord,  saying,  "Whom  shall  I  send,  and  who  will  go  for 
us  ?"    Then  said  I,  "  Here  am  I ;  send  me."    And  he 


256  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

said,  "  Go,  speak  to  tlie  people."*     Such  is  the  commis- 
sion of  the  prophet. 

And  why  should  there  not  haye  been  need  of  proph- 
ets and  saints  in  the  Jewish  Church,  seeing  there  is 
need  of  them  in  the  Catholic  Church  ?  Those  two 
mendicants  who,  in  the  dream  of  Pope  Innocent  III., 
support  the  crumbling  basilica  of  the  Lateran,  that 
seems  to  symbolize  the  decline  of  the  hierarchical  Church 
of  the  Middle  Ages — those  two  mendicants,  Dominic  de 
Guzman  and  Francis  of  Assisi,  what  are  they,  then, 
but  prophets  of  the  New  Testament,  sprung,  not  from 
the  hereditary  succession  and  tradition  of  the  centuries, 
but  from  the  burning  kiss  of  the  Lord's  altar-coal  ? 
Yes,  there  is  need  of  saints,  of  prophets,  that  is,  men  of 
love,  of  martyrdom ;  men  of  vision,  who  read  not  only 
by  the  letter  but  by  the  spirit,  "  whose  eyes  have  seen 
the  Lord  of  hosts"  in  the  vision  of  their  reason  enlight- 
ened by  faith,  in  the  ecstasy  of  their  conscience  quick- 
ened by  grace.  There  is  need  of  men  who  speak  with 
God  face  to  face,  like  Moses ;  and  above  all — above  all, 
Gentlemen,  there  is  need  of  men  who  love  God  heart  to 
heart,  and  who  march  on  amid  the  strifes  of  days  and 
centuries — strifes  whose  full  meaning  can  be  appre- 
hended only  by  such  as  "  see  afar  off  the  things  that 
shall  come  to  pass  at  the  last,  and  comfort  them  that 
mourn  in  Zion."t     Such  were  the  prophets. 

1.  They  were  seers.  They  beheld  the  future.  They 
did  not  look  merely  at  the  present — this  present  that  so 
satisfies  the  capacity  of  narrow  minds  and  hearts.  They 
did  not  even  turn  back,  with  craven  tears,  to  the  irre- 
coverable past.  It  was  the  part  of  the  Gentiles,  of  all 
heathen  antiquity,  to  dream  of  a  golden  age  forever 
lost.     The  prophets  looked  forward,  and  they  saw  this 

*  Isaiah,  vi.  1-9.  +  Ecclesiasticus,  xlviii.  24. 


THE  LETTER  AND   THE   SPIRIT.  257 

lost  golden  age  of  Eden  appearing  in  a  more  complete, 
more  lasting  form,  at  the  vestibule  of  heayen,  but  yet 
upon  the  earth. 

The  prophets  believed  in  the  future  because  they  be- 
lieved in  God.  They  believed  in  progress ;  they  were, 
in  all  antiquit}^,  the  only  men  of  progress.  Antiquity 
had  no  faith  in  progress — did  not  even  know  it  by 
name.  The  prophets  believed  in  the  most  incredible 
and  most  essential  of  all  progress — progress  in  morals 
and  religion.  They  believed  in  it  despite  the  fall,  or 
rather  because  of  the  fall  and  the  redemption.  To  them 
evil  did  not  lie  in  the  essential  corruption  of  our  na- 
ture, nor  in  the  inflexible  decree  of  fate  ;  it  lay  in  man's 
freedom,  and  the  remedy  was  found  in  God's  freedom. 
If  God  had  suffered  that  by  reason  of  sin  the  starting- 
point  of  human  nature  should  be  set  back  to  hell,  it 
was  that  the  goal  of  humanity  should  be  carried  forward 
and  upward  to  heaven.  From  these  heights  to  which 
their  faith  had  soared,  they  looked  down  and  beheld 
salvation  spreading  from  the  individual  to  the  nation, 
from  the  nation  to  the  human  race,  from  the  human 
race  over  all  nature. 

Such  was  progress  to  the  mind  of  the  prophets.  Such 
was  the  universal  Zion  which  they  hailed  in  the  future. 
Isaiah  prophesied  it  during  the  existence  and  compara- 
tive prosperity  of  Jerusalem.  Jeremiah  mingled  it  with 
his  tears  over  the  smouldering  ruins  of  his  beloved 
city.  Ezekiel,  in  captivity,  described  Zion,  not  now  the 
city  of  the  Jews,  but  the  metropolis  of  humanity,  a  city 
in  which  every  nation  should  find  a  home  ;  and  he  in- 
scribed over  its  portals  these  immortal  words :  "  The 
name  of  the  city  shall  be,  the  Lord  is  there."* 
Jeliovah-sham  malu 

*  Ezekiel,  xlviii.  35. 


258  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

2.  This  is  what  the  prophets,  believing  seers  and  see- 
ing believers,  believed  and  looked  for.  This,  also,  is 
what  they  loved,  for  they  were  not  merely  men  of  intel- 
lect, but  men  of  heart. 

I  have  no  love  for  Utopians ;  I  do  not  admire  the 
mind  that  dwells  exclusively  in  the  future,  that  lives 
upon  barren  and  chimerical  dreams  ;  I  love  the  men  of 
the  future  who  are  men  of  the  present,  who  meditate, 
but  also  work.  The  prophets  were  workers ;  they  did 
not  love  the  future  in  the  future,  but  in  the  present, 
which  contains  it  in  the  germ ;  they  did  not  love  man- 
kind in  mankind — too  abstract,  as  a  mere  conception,  too 
vast,  as  an  aggregate  of  individuals.  They  loved  hu- 
manity in  their  nation ;  they  loved  the  typical  Jerusa- 
lem of  their  visions  in  the  earthly  Jerusalem  of  their 
daily  lives. 

0  how  I  love  to  see  them,  as  I  read  their  pages,  stand- 
ing up  to  confront  every  national,  every  religious  act  of 
that  grovelling  people  !  confronting  every  evil  act  to  de- 
nounce it,  every  act  of  duty  and  religion,  of  beneficence 
and  progress,  to  bless  it  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  !  How 
I  love  to  see  them  as  they  wend  their  Avay  down  the 
dark  valley  to  the  brink  of  that  brook  Kedron — that 
"  brook  in  the  way"  of  which  Messiah  was  to  drink  ere 
he  should  "  lift  up  his  head,''*  and  then  climbing  again 
the  steep  path  that  led  to  the  citadel  and  the  temple 
where  Jesus  was  to  teach,  frequenting  the  public  places 
where  at  times  the  desert  wind,  as  if  in  mockery  of  their 
hopes,  would  stir  the  hot  and  parched  dust,  and  fling  it 
in  their  faces  !  But  then,  in  the  dark  valley  of  Kedron, 
in  the  citadel  and  temple  of  Zion,  in  the  streets  swept 
by  the  whirlwind — everywhere,  throughout  the  city 
which  they  cherished  with  their  afi*ectionate  devotion, 

*  Psalm  cv,  7. 


THE  LETTER  AND   THE   SPIRIT.  259 

they  beheld  that  Zion  which  was  to  grow  and  expand 
from  within  until  it  should  embrace  the  whole  world. 
Thus  loving  the  house  of  Abraham  and  the  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ,  they  loved  the  future  and  humanity  in 
God. 

In  the  presence  of  these  great  examples,  suffer  me  to 
say  to  you  about  love  of  country  what  I  said  to  you 
about  love  of  family ;  we  have  forgotten,  or  at  least  we 
do  not  sufficiently  remember,  what  it  is  to  love  a  coun- 
try, a  people,  a  city,  in  God  and  in  man — to  see  and 
love  therein  the  commonwealth  of  man  and  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  commonwealth  of  time  and  of  eternity. 

3.  The  prophets  were  men  of  vision,  men  of  love  : 
they  were  also  men  of  luar ;  and,  when  necessary,  men 
of  martyrdom — soldiers  and  victims.  Not  without  a 
struggle,  in  truth,  do  we  cross  that  Red  Sea  that  sepa- 
rates the  present  from  the  future.  We  stand  upon  its 
brink,  pent  in  between  the  inquietudes  of  the  past  and 
the  forebodings  of  the  future.  The  prophets  have 
crossed  it,  bearing  on  their  stalwart  shoulders  the  ark 
of  God  and  the  ark  of  the  human  race.  But  what 
fightings!  what  struggles! — struggles  magnificent  as 
their  visions,  as  their  love !  They  shrank — in  the  weak- 
ness of  their  human  nature,  they  shrank  from  these 
struggles.  They  knew  that  the  word  of  God  is,  sooner 
or  later,  the  death  of  them  that  bear  it.  "  I  have  slain 
them,"  saith  the  Lord,  "  by  the  words  of  my  mouth."* 
"  Ah !  Lord  God,"  exclaimed  Jeremiah,  "  why  dost  thou 
call  me?  Behold,  I  cannot  speak,  for  I  am  a  child." 
And  the  Lord  said  unto  him  :  "  Say  not  I  am  a  child ; 
for  I  shall  put  my  word  in  thy  mouth,  and  thou  shalt 
confound  all  my  enemies ;  I  shall  set  thee  to  root  out 
and  to  plant,  and  to  pull  down  and  to  build  u^  •  I  shall 

*  Hosea,  vi.  5. 


260  DISCOURSES   OF   FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

set  thee  over  the  kings  and  priests  of  Juclah,  over  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth  :  they  shall  fight  agaijist  thee, 
but  they  shall  not  prevail,  for  I  am  with  thee."* 

And  to  Ezekiel,  the  colleague  and  successor  of  Jere- 
miah, God  always  spoke  this  language  of  battle :  "  Fear 
not.  I  send  thee  to  a  rebellious  nation,  but  1  shall 
make  thy  face  strong  against  their  faces,  and  thy  fore- 
head strong  against  their  foreheads.  As  an  adamant, 
harder  than  flint  shall  I  make  thy  forehead :  I  shall 
set  thee  as  a  wall  of  iron  and  as  a  city  of  brass,  for  I 
shall  be  with  thee."f 

After  this  fashion  did  the  prophets  struggle  for  Zion, 
that  resisted,  that  rejected  them.  Never  did  they  aban- 
don her ;  they  ever  loved  and  served  her. 

We  are  about  to  separate.  Gentlemen,  for  one  more 
year.  Suffer  me,  at  this  moment,  to  entreat  you  to 
unite  with  me  in  an  act  of  self-consecration  to  this 
kingdom  of  God,  this  Church  whose  outer  courts  we 
have  been  treading  together.  Christianity  is  not  a 
thing  of  to-day,  nor  of  yesterday :  it  is  not  only  of 
the  historic  epoch  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  apostles ;  it 
is  of  David,  of  Moses,  of  Abraham — it  is  of  Adam,  the 
father,  king,  pontiff  of  us  all.  In  this  one  religion, 
then — in  this  Church  whose  form  may  change,  but 
whose  substance  abideth  unchangeable,  ah!  Gentle- 
men, and — suffer  me  this  word,  for  it  is  in  my  heart — 
friends,  brothers,  let  us  consecrate  ourselves,  as  did  the 
prophets,  to  the  love  and  service  of  the  kingdom  of 
God!  The  kingdom  of  God  is  formally  constituted 
in  Christianity,  in  the  Church,  catholic,  apostolic,  and 
Eoman;  but  this  Church,  as  I  have  but  just  now  been 
saying,  must  ever  go  on  changing  from  form  to  form, 
"  from  glory  to  glory,"  until  it  shall  have  spread  its  mild 

*  Jeremiah,  i.  t  Ezckiel,  ii.,  iii.,  iv. 


THE  LETTER  AND   THE   SPIRIT.  261 

dominion  over  the  whole  world,  until  it  shall  have 
reached,  with  all  the  human  race,  "the  stature  of  the 
perfect  man  in  Christ  Jesus." 

Do  we  not  wish  to  labor  for  this  reign  ?  And  what  do 
we,  if  we  do  not  this  ?  What  are  the  works  of  our  pri- 
vate and  our  public  life,  if  these  works  do  not  bear  ulti- 
mately upon  the  kingdom  of  truth,  justice,  charity,  all 
that  is  included  in  Christianity — all  that  makes  up  the 
Church,  catholic,  apostolic,  and  Roman.  I  do  not  ask 
you  to  love  this  Church  as  it  does  not  wish  to  be  loved — 
to  love  it  as  one  loves  a  sect — as  the  grovelling  Jews 
loved  the  synagogue,  with  a  mind  and  a  heart  shrunken 
up  within  the  letter;  I  do  not  ask  you  to  love  our  great 
Catholic  Church  by  glorifying  the  infirmities  of  its  life 
(which  are  your  infirmities  and  mine),  and  condemning 
all  the  truths  professed  and  all  the  virtues  practised 
outside  of  it  by  men  who  are  often  unwittingly  its  sons. 
No ;  away  with  all  sectarian  love !  I  ask  you  to  love 
the  Church  with  the  heart  of  the  Church  itself,  with  a 
heart  that  measures  itself  only  by  the  heart  of  Christ. 
"  Be  ye  also  enlarged !"  I  say  to  you  as  Saint  Paul  said 
to  the  Corinthians — "  Our  heart  is  enlarged.  Be  not 
straitened  in  your  own  bosoms.     Be  ye  also  enlarged."* 

Suffer  me.  Gentlemen,  before  we  part,  to  tell  you  the 
secret  of  my  soul,  the  secret  of  my  youth  ;  how,  on  the 
day  of  my  ordination  to  the  priesthood,  here  in  the 
nave  of  this  cathedral,  not  thronged  as  it  is  to-day,  as 
I  lay  prostrate  on  its  cold  pavement,  with  burning, 
throbbing  heart,  the  thought  that  sustained,  that  en- 
tranced me,  was  the  thought  that  I  should  have  hence- 
forth but  one  love,  one  service — the  kingdom  of  God  in 
man. 

Yes,  Gentlemen,  let  us  love  the  Church  in  every  man, 

*  2  Corinthians,  vi.  11—13. 


262  DISCOURSES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

and  every  man  in  the  Chnrcli !  What  matters  his  con- 
dition ?  Eich  or  poor,  ignorant  or  learned,  onuiibus 
delitor  sum,  "I  am  debtor  to  every  man,"  says  Saint 
Paul.  What  matters  his  nationality?  Frenchman  or 
foreigner,  Greek  or  Barbarian,  omnibus  debitor  sum,  I 
answer  with  Saint  Paul :  I  am  debtor  alike  to  barbarism 
and  to  civilization.  So  far  as  concerns  our  loving  the 
man,  what  matter  is  it,  even,  in  one  sense,  what  is  his 
religion  ? 

If  he  be  not  a  son  of  the  Catholic  Church  according  to 
the  body,  the  outward  unity,  he  is,  perhaps,  he  is,  I  hope, 
according  to  the  soul,  the  invisible  unity.  If  he  be  not 
a  son  of  the  Catholic  Church  according  to  the  soul  or 
according  to  the  body — either  according  to  the  spirit  or 
according  to  the  letter — at  least  he  is  such  in  the  prep- 
aration of  God's  counsels.  If  he  have  not  the  bap- 
tismal water  on  his  brow,  I  am  grieved,  but  nevertheless 
I  behold  there  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ;  for  Christ 
has  died  for  every  man,  opening  to  the  whole  world  his 
great  arms  upon  the  cross  !  The  world  belongs  to  Je- 
sus Christ,  and  therefore  the  Avorld  belongs  to  thfe 
Church,  if  not  actually,  at  least  potentially.  Let  me, 
then,  love  every  man ;  and  you  also,  with  me,  love  every 
man,  not  only  in  himself,  not  only  in  his  narrow  and 
earthly  individuality,  but  in  the  great  Christian  fellow- 
ship, the  great  divine  fellowship  which  invites  us  all. 


THE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  WORKmG-CLASSES. 


SPEECH     BEFORE     THE     CHURCH     CONGRESS     AT 
MALINES,  BELGIUM. 

September  6,  1867. 


Your  High:n^ess,  my  Lords,  ai^b  GEiij'TLEME:^' : — 
I  will  not  attempt  to  hide  the  deep  emotion  which  I 
feel.  I  look  about  me  and  am  abashed — abashed  by  this 
yery  assembly  from  which  I  am  to  gather  inspiration 
for  the  words  that  I  shall  speak.  I  see  before  me  one 
of  the  princes  of  the  Church — a  prince  indeed,  by  wis- 
dom and  virtue.  I  see  this  illustrious  group  of  bishops, 
my  fathers  in  the  faith.  I  see  eminent  statesmen,  mas- 
ters of  learning  and  eloquence,  and  I  find  this  desk 
still  warm  and  throbbing  with  the  hands  that  have 
pressed  it,  and  the  tones  that  have  thrilled  it.  I  see 
this  great  assembly,  gathered  from  the  four  winds  of 
heaven  to  discuss,  here  in  this  free  corner  of  the  earth, 
called  Belgium,  the  religious  interests  of  the  Catholics 
of  the  two  worlds.  Gentlemen,  I  was  abashed,  but  I 
am  so  no  longer.  I  feel  that  I  am  not  here  as  a  stran- 
ger. I  am  among  my  brethren ;  and  these  cheers  with 
which  you  greet  me  I  accept,  because  they  are  not 
meant  for  the  individual,  which  is  nothing,  but  for  the 
cause,  which  is  much — I  had  almost  said,  which  is  every- 


264  DISCOURSES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

thing.  This  cause  I  define  in  two  words — the  Catholic 
Church;  and  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  nineteenth 
century. 

On  that  day  which  no  priest  ever  forgets — the  day 
when,  prostrate  on  the  payement  of  the  church,  I  took 
for  my  chaste  and  only  spouse  the  holy  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ,  with  lips  in  the  dust,  eyes  in  tears,  bosom  rapt 
in  ecstasy  and  heaved  with  sobs — I  vowed  in  silence  to 
love  her  well,  and,  so  far  as  in  me  lay,  to  serve  her  well, 
not  only  in  her  great  past,  which  never  can  return,  in 
her  great  future,  which  is  yet  to  come,  but  in  her 
present,  at  once  so  grievous  and  so  grand — her  present, 
such  as  History,  and  therefore  God,  has  made  it. 

Now,  in  this  service  of  the  Church  of  the  nineteenth 
century  there  arises  a  question  which,  of  all  questions, 
is  the  most  perplexing  and  threatening — the  AYorking- 
Class  question. 

It  is  an  immense  question,  but  I  shall  confine  myself 
to  a  single  aspect  of  it,  the  Educatmi  of  the  Workmg- 
Classes,  The  hope  of  the  harvest  is  in  the  seed,  and  Leib- 
nitz might  well  say,  "Give  me  the  instruction  of  the 
youth  for  a  century,  and  I  will  change  the  face  of  the 
earth."  But  this  transformation  can  be  accomplished 
only  in  so  far  as  the  education  of  the  working-man  is 
efi'ected  under  the  conditions  prescribed  by  the  nature 
of  man,  and  the  general  harmony  of  the  divine  plan. 

There  are  three  grades  in  this  education — primary 
education  in  the  family,  business  education  in  the  shop, 
religious  education  on  the  Lord's-day. 

I.  Family  Education. — I  put  the  family  in  the  front 
rank.  It  holds  this  rank  in  the  order  of  time;  it 
should  hold  it  in^the  order  of  influence. 

Among  the  multitude  of  superior  minds  that  concern 
themselves  about  the  condition  of  the  working-classes. 


EDUCATION   OF  THE  WORKING-CLASSES.  265 

I  am  amazed  that  there  should  be  so  few  to  comprehend 
th^ir  real  wants.  For  the  cure  of  their  ills,  the  means 
of  their  advancement,  men  go  on  a  vain  quest  among 
new  inventions  and  combinations,  specious  theories,  and 
even  special  and  accidental  institutions.  They  are  to 
be  sought  rather  in  the  family — that  institution,  as  old 
and  as  universal  as  mankind,  which  is  rooted  in  the 
tenderest,  strongest,  inmost  recesses  of  human  nature ; — 
that  institution  coming  from  the  hands  of  God  himself, 
rescued  from  the  wreck  of  Eden,  washed  by  Jesus  Christ 
in  his  own  blood,  and  raised  by  him  to  the  dignity  of  a 
sacrament,  that  he  might  make  of  it  one  of  the  seven 
columns  which  are  to  bear  up,  to  the  world's  end,  the 
edifice  of  regenerate  humanity.     [Applause.] 

It  is  the  famil}^,  then,  which  must  be  sustained  or 
restored  in  all  classes  of  society,  but  especially  in  the 
working-class  of  our  cities.  It  is  to  the  family,  more 
than  to  any  other  agency,  that  the  primary  education 
of  the  child  must  be  remitted. 

In  primary  education,  there  are  two  things  that  de- 
mand special  consideration — the  place,  and  the  agent. 
The  place  is  home ;  the  agent  is  the  mother. 

Home !  There  the  cradle  is  to  rest ;  there  the  first 
years  of  childliood  to  be  passed.  Has  not  Providence 
implanted  this  instinct  in  the  hearts  of  all  his  creatures, 
even  of  the  inferior  orders?  Does  not  the  bird  build 
its  nest  in  the  fragrant  moss,  under  the  shelter  of  the 
hedge,  or  amid  the  branches  of  the  tree  ?  In  every  rank 
of  nature  is  there  not  some  special,  some  sacred  place, 
where  the  earliest  hopes,  joys,  sorrows  of  life  are  to  be 
harbored  ?  Surely,  then,  the  human  race  is  entitled  to 
a  spot  where  it  may  lay  its  young,  more  sacred  than 
these  cradles  of  the  lower  races ;  it  is  entitled  to  a  home 
neither  mean  nor  murderous — fatal  neither  to  the  body 

12 


266  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

nor  to  the  soul  of  the  little  child.  This  home  is  to  be 
of  itself  the  primary  education  of  the  young  soul,  the 
nascent  imagination  and  feelings.  These  walls  are 
more  than  walls ;  this  roof  is  no  mere  putting  together 
of  timbers  and  tiles;  these  bits  of  furniture  are  no 
vulgar  objects.  All  these  things  speak  a  deep  language, 
and  exercise  a  mighty  moral  action.  We  Catholics, 
have  we  not,  in  our  divine  religion,  sensible  signs  called 
sacraments — water,  wine,  bread,  oil;  material  things,  in 
short,  but  material  things  which  reveal,  and,  in  different 
degrees,  communicate,  things  invisible  ?  So,  in  the  plane 
of  nature,  in  what  I  would  call  household  religion,  there 
is  also  a  mysterious  influence  of  places  and  things — a 
secret  communication  of  family  habits,  family  virtues, 
family  feeling,  by  material  objects  themselves.  The 
little  child  sees  what  his  fathers  saw,  mingles  his  life 
with  objects  full  of  their  memories,  and,  as  one  might 
say,  impregnated  with  their  spirit.  He  receives  there- 
from some  indefinable  impressions,  some  indelible  marks 
which  he  will  carry  with  him  through  all  the  wander- 
ings of  youth,  down  to  the  gray  hairs  of  old  age. 

If  this  is  poetry.  Gentlemen,  it  is  "  positive"  poetry. 
It  has  its  germ  in  facts,  and  its  roots  in  the  nature  of 
things.  Aiid  it  shows  us,  withal,  how  important  it  is 
for  the  child  to  be  brought  up  in  the  home  of  its 
parents,  and  not  under  a  strange  roof. 

As  I  have  said,  the  principal  agent  in  household 
education  is  the  mother.  Not  that  I  would  disparage 
the  father's  share  in  it;  on  the  contrary,  I  should  be 
disposed,  if  I  were  to  speak  my  mind  freely  on  this 
subject,  to  reproach  some  Catholic  authors  for  not 
taking  sufficient  account  of  it.  We  are  in  danger  of 
forgetting  the  father,  in  presence  of  the  mother — that 
ideal  so  pure,  so  graceful,  so  Christian.     But  I  am  not 


EDUCATION   OF  THE  WOEKING-CLASSES.  267 

now  attempting  a  complete  treatise  on  family  educa- 
tion ;  I  am  insisting  especially  on  the  importance  of 
that  primary  education,  the  care  of  which  is  devolved 
almost  exclusively  on  the  mother.  At  this  period  of 
life,  the  object  is  to  form  the  body  and  the  heart  of  the 
child :  by  and  by,  the  reason  will  have  its  turn  ;  but  it 
will  never  be  fairly  developed,  except  on  this  twofold 
basis,  physical  and  moral — a  body  and  a  heart  worthily 
prepared.  ISTow,  no  hands  but  a  woman's  are  capable 
of  this  agricultura  Dei — this  husbandry  of  God.  No 
hands  but  hers  are  pure  enough  and  gentle  enough  to 
handle  this  new-born,  tender  body,  that  might  be  chilled 
and  blighted  by  one  imprudent  touch.  No  hands  but 
hers  are  potent  enough  to  waken  within  it  that  organ 
of  the  heart  which,  as  science  tells  us,  is  the  first  to  be 
born,  the  last  to  die — prinnim  saliens  et  idtimiim  moriens 
— and  in  which,  nevertheless,  the  very  faculty  of  love 
lies  so  often  extinguished  or  corrupted  in  the  germ. 
Yes !  as  the  hands  of  the  priest  are  consecrated  to  touch 
the  bod}^  of  Christ  on  the  altar — that  glorious  body, 
hidden  beneath  the  limitations  of  the  sacrament — in 
like  manner  the  hands  of  the  Christian  woman,  by  the 
marriage  benediction  and  the  grace  of  motherhood,  are 
hallowed  that  they  may  worthily  touch  the  body  of  the 
little  child, — that  feeble  and  yet  glorious  body,  since  it 
is  the  shrine  of  a  soul — I  might  almost  say,  the  shrine 
of  a  God.  For  by  baptism  it  has  become  a  living  mem- 
ber of  Jesus  Christ.     [Aj^plause.] 

Home  !  Mother ! — Where  arc  they,  to-day, .  for  the 
people  of  our  great  cities  ?  Ah  !  I  have  laid  my  finger 
on  two  gaping,  hideous  wounds  of  modern  society — the 
bad  condition  of  the  dwellings  of  the  working-classes, 
and  the  withdrawal  of  the  mother  from  her  home.  These 
are  two  of  the  principles  most   active,  and   yet  most 


268  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE.  • 

commonly  overlooked,  at  tlie  root  of  the  evils  of  society. 
Here,  in  the  disorganization  of  the  family,  in  the  demor- 
alization of  the  people,  we  see  the  gathering  of  those 
black  specks  which  go  climbing  up  the  sky,  and  cover 
it  with  clouds,  to  burst,  by  and  by,  in  a  tremendous 
storm. 

Do  you  call  this,  then,  a  home  ?  Is  it  not  rather  a 
den — this  dank,  dark,  fetid  cellar,  from  which  its  tenants 
are  absent  all  day,  and  into  which,  at  nightfall,  they 
come  huddling  back  in  a  loathsome  herd?  Is  it  the 
abode  of  the  living,  or  the  sepulchre  of  the  dead? — this 
close,  stifling  garret,  in  which,  in  order  to  stretch  him- 
self upon  his  Procrustes'  bed  (I  am  citing  a  fact  that  has 
lately  come  to  my  knowledge,  in  Paris),  the  weary  laborer 
is  obliged  to  open  the  dormer-window  at  night,  and  put 
his  feet  out  on  the  roof?  I  put  the  question — Are  such 
as  these  fit  dwellings  for  free  citizens  of  France  and 
Belgium — for  men  redeemed  by  the  blood  of  Christ  ? 
[Apjjlause.] 

If  the  mother  were  but  there,  her  look  and  smile  might 
irradiate  that  darkness,  and  transform  that  ugliness  to 
beaut)',  and  make  a  feast  of  joy  in  the  midst  of  all  this 
wretchedness.  But  Manufacture — tyrannous  Manufac- 
ture— has  dried  up  the  fountain  of  her  breast,  and 
dragged  her,  feeble  and  staggering,  into  the  great  work- 
shop, noisy  with  the  din  of  labor  and  the  din  of  blas- 
phemy, where  she  can  no  longer  hear  the  cries  of  the 
child  that  has  been  carried  away  from  her  and  left  in 
the  careless  hands  of  some  mercenary  stranger,  from 
which  it  shall  come  back  to  her  dead  or  blighted. 

These  are  not  exaggerations.  Gentlemen,  they  are 
facts  that  are  already  far  too  common,  and  which  tend 
to  become  the  law  in  all  the  great  manufacturing  cen- 
tres of  population.    Xow  it  is  the  duty,  the  imperative 


EDUCATION   OF  THE  WOKKING-CLASSES.  269 

duty  of  Catholics  to  enter  into  association  among  them- 
selves, and  with  Christians  of  all  Churches,  with  benevo- 
lent men  of  every  class  of  opinion,  to  make  one  last  ef- 
fort in  favor  of  the  working-classes.  Let  us  strive  to 
give  them  back  the  family  of  which  they  have  been 
robbed.  Let  us  strive  to  give  them  a  home,  humble  and 
poor  of  course,  but  honest  and  cheerful,  where  the 
mother  may  dwell  with  her  children,  and  give  them 
those  cares  of  heart  and  body  which  nobody  else  in  all 
the  world  is  fit  to  give.     [A2)2jlause.] 

I  am  no  Utopian,  and  am  not  so  simple  as  to  suppose 
that  all  these  things  can  be  accomplished  in  a  day. 
AVhatever  might  be  that  coalition  of  all  powerful  influ- 
ences, all  wise  intellects,  all  generous  hearts,  to  which 
my  longings  aspire,  years  must  needs  elapse,  and  years 
again,  before  the  family,  now  so  fatally  impaired  among 
the  people  of  our  cities,  could  regain  its  vigor  and  its 
beauty.  Meanwhile,  Gentlemen,  what  shall  we  do? 
Charity  has  been  the  mother  of  wonderful  inventions. 
For  the  homeless  she  has  opened  creches  and  asylums ; 
for  the  motherless,  she  has  trained  up  devoted  hearts  to 
the  work  of  education,  whatever  their  sex,  or  name,  or 
garb.  Especially  has  she  been  training  up,  now  for 
three  centuries,  by  the  heart  of  Vincent  de  Paul,  that 
extraordinary  woman  whose  mission  has  been  chiefly 
reserved  for  this  nineteenth  century,  and  for  this  great 
crisis  of  the  laboring-classes,  this  helper  of  the  working- 
man  as  of  the  soldier,  on  the  battle-field  of  toil  or  of 
suffering — the  Sister  of  Charity.  If  anything  could  fill 
the  mother's  place  beside  the  cradles  of  the  people,  it 
would  be  this  nun  uncloistered  and  unveiled,  living  in 
the  world  but  not  of  the  world,  and  who,  by  an.  unex- 
ampled combination,  carries  a  virgin's  heart  within  a 
mother's  bosom.     [Prolonged  applause.] 


270  DISCOUESES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

Leave  the  little  one  with  the  Sister  of  Charity.  Leave 
it  to  the  school-teacher,  standing  in  the  place  of  the 
parent,  to  the  asylum  or  the  school  that  must  answer  in 
the  place  of  home.  Do  not  suffer  any  hand,  under  any 
pretence  whatever,  to  tear  it  out  of  the  very  cradle,  and 
present  to  us  that  spectacle  so  loathsome,  if  it  were  not 
so  pitiful — the  eight-year-old  factory-hand. 

I  am  constrained  to  tell  the  whole  truth  to  this  great 
manufacturing  interest,  which  has  been,  in  turn,  flat- 
tered to  the  point  of  sycophancy,  and  insulted  to  the 
point  of  outrage.  I  deal  neither  in  flattery  nor  in  in- 
sult. I  deem  it  the  noblest  homage  that  can  be  ren- 
dered to  any  earthly  power  to  believe  it  great  enough  to 
hear  the  truth.  I  say,  then,  to  the  manufacturing  in- 
terest, that  it  has  no  right  to  lay  its  hand  upon  the 
child  before  the  age  marked  by  nature  and  religion.  So 
to  act  is  to  commit  a  crime  more  heinous  than  that 
which  so  long  defiled  America,  and  which  she  has  had 
to  wash  away  in  seas  of  blood.  Among  those  men  that 
were  owners  of  men,  there  were  good  and  upright  ones, 
who  were  rather  the  benefactors  of  their  slaves  than 
their  masters ;  and  there  were  others  that  had  neither 
conscience  nor  heart.  They  saw  in  the  negro  nothing 
but  a  machine,  and  enforced  from  him  labor  without 
measure  or  rest.  This  was  the  oppression  of  the  body. 
But  all  oppressions,  like  all  liberties,  are  mutually  con- 
nected, and  from  the  oppression  of  the  body  they  passed 
to  the  oppression  of  the  soul.  If  slaves  get  hold  of  the 
truth,  the  truth  will  make  them  free.  ISTo  intercourse, 
then,  with  the  sources  of  knowledge — with  the  audible 
teaching  of  men,  or  the  silent  teaching  of  books !  And, 
finally,  to  intellectual  oppression  these  studious  and 
cruel  tyrants  added  moral  oppression.  They  were  in 
the  right,  a  thousand  times  over,  for  of  all  the  confed- 


EDUCATION   OF  THE   WORKING-CLASSES.  271 

erates  of  liberty,  the  most  dangerous  is  not  knowledge, 
but  virtue.  No  virtue  for  slaves!  We  have  taken 
away  the  Gospel — now  take  away  nature !  And  because, 
in  the  absence  of  the  Gospel,  and  in  the  very  wreck  of 
human  nature,  so  long  as  that  nature  has  not  perished 
altogether,  there  remain  still  two  noble  sentiments,  two 
mighty  roots  from  which,  even  yet,  all  may  bloom  again 
— conjugal  love  and  parental  love — they  destroyed  the 
family  itself,  so  that  in  those  woe-stricken  cabins  men 
might  not  even  embrace  in  honor  as  in  affection  the 
partners  of  their  misery  and  the  offspring  of  their  loins. 

You  shudder,  0  my  friends,  and  you  do  well.  And 
yet  nothing  is  wholly  ruined  ;  however  great  the  evil,  it 
is  not  hopeless.  This  negro  is  a  grown-up  man,  and  if 
in  a  childhood  more  happy  than  his  maturer  years,  he 
w^as  nursed  upon  the  bosom  of  a  negro  yet  Christian 
mother — "black,  but  comely"— with  the  healthful  and 
honest  milk  of  chaste  wedlock;  if  he  has  known  the 
Gospel  and  loved  the  Saviour,  he  carries  deep  within  his 
breast  hidden  resources  ;  he  will  feel  within  him  sudden 
and  mighty  quickenings  of  an  honest  conscience  and  of 
Christian  dignity,  and  against  the  threefold  tyranny  of 
body,  mind,  and  heart  he  will  rise  in  victorious  revolt! 

Gentlemen,  the  being  effectively  oppressed,  the  victim 
incurably  blighted,  is  not  the  man,  but  the  child.  It  is 
the  little  white  slave  of  Europe,  that  has  never  known 
its  cradle  or  its  mother,  and  that  comes  to  its  conscious- 
ness in  the  gloomy  factory,  a  sort  of  earthly  hell,  over 
whose  portals  you  might  write, 

'"Who  enter  liere,  leave  liope  behind." 

Its  gasping  lungs  fill  themselves  w^ith  draughts  of  air 
that  are  nothing  less  than  draughts  of  poison.  Its 
puny  limbs,  bent  under  the  burden  of  toil  before  the 


272  DISCOURSES    OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

bones  had  hardened,  are  doomed  from  infancy  to  de- 
crepitude. Its  understanding,  also,  stunted  in  its  early 
growth,  is  twisted,  in  the  darkness,  into  miserable  mal- 
formations. In  vain,  at  a  later  day,  with  useless  pity, 
you  may  make  the  effort  to  teach  it  some  few  truths. 
After  years  of  brutal  degradation,  the  negro  may  begin 
to  remember;  after  some  months  only  of  this  odious 
regimen,  the  child  loses  the  faculty  of  acquisition. 
Never  shall  it  hold  in  its  hands  those  three  common  but 
sublime  keys  that  unlock  so  many  things  in  life  and  in 
the  soul — reading,  Avriting,  and  arithmetic!  Never 
shall  he  possess  those  rudiments  of  knowledge  which 
ought  to  be  the  common  lot  of  all :  something  about 
the  shape  and  the  life  of  this  world  in  which  he  lives ; 
much  of  the  glory  and  destiny  of  the  country  he  is  to 
love  and  serve.  Never,  no !  never,  shall  he  have  the 
clear,  strong  revelation  to  himself  of  his  own  soul  and 
of  God.  His  soul  and  God !  it  is  not  only  ignorance 
that  has  robbed  him  of  them,  it  is  vice.  What  trans- 
actions are  those  that  take  place  in  that  gloomy  factory, 
that  hell  of  precocious  and  yet  hopeless  depravity?  I 
will  not  attempt  to  say ;  I  will  only  listen  to  what  is 
told  us  by  the  mouth  of  one  of  our  own  poets,  the  elo- 
quent interpreter  of  the  frenzies  and  the  miseries  of 
wickedness  in  the  human  soul : 

"  Man's  vh'gin  heart  is  like  a  deep,  deep  vase : 
Let  tlie  first  water  poured  therein  be  foul, 
And  ocean  may  flow  over  it  in  vain, 
And  never  wash  it  clean  ;  so  deep  th'  abyss, 
And  the  stain  fastens  to  its  inmost  part."* 

*  "  Le  cceur  de  Fhomme  vierge  est  un  A^ase  profoiid : 
Lorsqiie  la  premiere  eau  qu'on  y  verse  est  impure, 
La  mer  y  passerait  sans  laver  la  souillure  : 
Car  Tabime  est  immense,  et  la  tache  est  an  fond." 

—Alfred  de  Mussel. 


EDUCATION   OF   THE   WORKING-CLASSES.  273 

"Woe  unto  yon,  ye  hands  that  have  put  a  blight  on 
childhood !  Woe  unto  you,  for  all  your  grandeur,  for 
all  your  skill,  for  all  your  wealth  !  Ye  hands  of  merci- 
less enterprise,  ye  shall  he  dried  up  and  withered  like 
the  hand  of  the  tyrant  of  Israel  under  the  curse  of  the 
prophet  of  Judah  :  "  the  hand  of  Jeroboam  dried  up  so 
that  he  could  not  pull  it  in  again  to  him,"  because  the 
Lord  had  cursed  it*  Ye  have  been  guilty  of  the  most 
cowardly,  the  most  revolting,  the  most  irreparable  of 
crimes !     [Prolonged  applmise.} 

11.  Factory  Education. — I  have  dwelt  too  long,  per- 
haps, on  this  primary  education  of  man.  You  must 
put  the  blame  of  it.  Gentlemen,  on  your  own  attention 
and  sympathy,  and  then  on  that  empty  cradle,  that  ab- 
sent mother,  that  sorrowful  home,  over  which  we  felt 
that  we  must  pour  out  our  tears  and  our  hopes  to- 
gether. 

The  education  of  home  concludes  by  a  great  religious 
act,  the  first  communion,  which  is  like  a  first  coming 
of  age  of  the  child.  More  precocious,  in  this  respect, 
tlian  the  rich  man's  child,  the  laborer's  son  enters,  from 
that  time  forth,  into  a  sort  of  public  life.  From  the  fam- 
ily, he  passes  to  the  factory.  Am  I  mistaken.  Gentlemen ; 
and  ought  I  to  speak  of  the  school  as  coming  between  the 
family  and  the  factory — first,  the  primary  school,  and  then 
the  professional  school  ?  No  !  the  school  is  not  between 
the  family  and  the  factory ;  it  is  alongside  of  both.  It 
does  not  form,  with  the  family  and  the  factory,  a  third 
grade  of  popular  educatio'n ;  to  put  it  all  in  one  word, 
its  function  is  not  principal  and  independent,  but  sec- 
ondary and  subordinate.  I  have  great  sympathy  and 
respect  for  these  modest  and  self-denying  instructors  of 
the  people.     Whether  they  are  connected  with  public 

*  1  Kings,  ziii.  4, 


274  DISCOURSES   OF   FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

scliools  or  private,  whether  they  wear  the  garb  of  lay- 
men or  of  some  religions  order,  no  matter,  so  long  as 
they  are  faithful  to  the  dignity  of  their  calling.  I,  for 
one,  will  never  have  anything  to  do  with  the  coarse  and 
undeserved  insults  that  have  been  flung  at  them,  with 
different  spirit,  by  extremists  of  all  parties.  But  hon- 
orable as  their  calling  is,  I  repeat,  it  is  only  secondary. 
Practical  good  sense  refuses  to  see  in  the  school  what 
too  many  of  our  contemporaries  think  they  see  in  it — 
the  most  effective  instrument  for  the  elevation  of  the 
working-classes.  Permit  me.  Gentlemen,  to  cite  the 
words  of  a  master  of  economic  science,  a  patient,  im- 
partial, sagacious  observer,  whose  name  and  works 
I  would  be  glad  to  find  becoming  popular  among 
Catholics:  "In  free  and  prosperous  nations,"  says  M. 
Le  Play,  "  the  teacher  has  only  a  subordinate  part.  The 
real  education  is  given  by  the  family,  aided  by  the 
priest;  it  is  completed  by  apprenticeship  to  business, 
aiid  by  the  practice  of  social  duties."* 

The  factory,  then,  after  the  family,  is  the  second 
centre — the  second  home  of  the  education  of  the  people. 
But  v/hat  is  a  factory,  correctly  understood  and  rightly 
organized  ?  It  is  a  place  where  there  is  practical  recog- 
nition of  the  personal  rights  and  dignity  of  the  working- 
man,  and  especially  of  the  working-child.  A  personal 
being  is  always  an  end,  never  a  means ;  he  is  not  to  be 
used  like  an  irrational  animal  or  an  unconscious  tool. 
If  we  expect  service  of  him,  if  we  derive  profits  from 
him,  we  are  bound  to  deal*  toward  him,  as  God  does 
toward  us,  "  with  great  respect" — ciim  magna  reverentia 
disponis  nos.\   What  is  a  well-constituted  factory?   It  is 

*  "  La  Eeforme  Sociale  en  France,  by  M.  Le  Play,  author  of  0\ivriers 
Europeens,  Commissioner-General  at  the  Universal  ExpoBitions  of  1855, 1862, 
and  1867.    Third  Edition,  Vol.  II.,  p.  369. 

t  Wisdpm,  xii.  18. 


EDUCATION   OF   THE   WORKING-CLASSES.  275 

one  which  has  at  the  head  of  it  an  honorable  man  as 
patron,* — a  man  really  worthy  of  that  title.  There  are 
those  who  object  to  this  title  as  somehow  ridiculous  or 
invidious;  to  me  it  seems  a  very  grand  title,  a  very 
noble  and  Christian  title.  To  my  mind,  it  suggests  the 
idea  of  a  iKiternal  relation,  and  in  this  very  idea  the 
practical  solution  of  our  social  questions,  by  means  of 
relations  of  mutual  affection — by  means  of  free,  and  yet 
close  and  lasting  association  between  masters  and  work- 
men. In  such  a  factory,  under  such  a  father  of  the 
people  and  of  the  laborer,  it  is  possible  to  sacrifice  im- 
mediate profits,  however  considerable,  to  the  training 
up  of  intelligent  and  virtuous  apprentices.  In  such  a 
factory,  it  is  not  the  only  question  how  to  turn  off  the 
most  work  in  the  shortest  time,  but  how  to  make  the 
business  as  honorable  for  its  workmen  as  for  its  work — 
for  its  moral  side  as  for  its  material  side.  In  such  a 
factory,  they  "  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his 
righteousness,"  and  all  the  rest  is  added  unto  them. 
For  the  righteous  and  the  profitable  are  more  closely 
connected  than  men  think;  and  science  has  recently 
proved  that  in  the  productions  of  manufacturing  in- 
dustry are  to  be  discovered  indications  of  the  grade,  not 
only  of  the  workman's  intelligence,  but  of  his  morals. 

With  the  aid  of  capable  and  faithful  foremen,  such  a 
patron  will  make  the  factory  under  his  direction  the 
best  of  professional  schools.  The  good  workman  is 
trained,  like  the  good  soldier,  less  by  precept  than  by 
example — less  by  general  and  theoretical  notions  than 
by  practical  struggle  with  the  realities  of  his  business. 
Come  on,  then,  my  young  conscript  of  labor  !  I  would 
there  were  a  great  many  more  of  your  sort  of  conscripts, 

*  The  title  commonly  applied,  in  French,  to  the  maBter  of  a  ship  or  of  a 
manufacturing  concern. 


276  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER   HYACINTHE. 

and  a  great  many  less  of  the  other  sort — [Applause] — 
yes,  conscripts  of  husbandry  for  those  vast  open  work- 
shops the  fields,  and  conscripts  of  mechanic  industry 
for  those  narrower,  but  not  less  fruitful,  workshops  of 
our  cities — these  make  up  the  grand,  pacific  army  that 
constitutes  the  true  power  and  the  true  preponderance 
of  a  nation  !  [Renewed  ap^jlause.']  Come  on,  conscript 
of  labor  I  enter  the  battlefield  of  the  shop !  Go  in  to 
those  fights  that  are  not  always  without  danger — that 
are  never  without  courage  and  glory!  And  you,  old 
veteran  of  a  foreman,  captain  of  the  noble  host,  follow 
him,  guide  him,  urge  him  on  with  look,  and  word,  and 
action.  See  how  he  will  avenge  his  early  reverses  by 
valiant  feats  of  arms !  How  he  will  lay  his  victorious 
hand  on  this  wild  beast — this  brute  matter  in  revolt 
against  mankind !  He  shall  seize  it  by  the  forelock,  he 
shall  twist  his  hand  into  its  mane,  and  bring  it  down 
at  last,  subdued,  docile,  broken  to  his  will,  to  fetch  and 
carry  the  inventions  of  science,  and  the  creations  of 
genius.     [Applause.'] 

One  word  more.  Gentlemen,  as  to  the  factory.  It  be- 
longs to  it  to  complete  the  formation  of  the  moral  and 
religious  man,  as  well  as  of  the  intelligent  and  skilful 
artisan.  It  is  not  only  the  chief  school  of  the  profession, 
it  is  the  chief  school  of  life.  The  family,  with  its  aux- 
iliaries, the  school  and  the  catechetical  teaching  of  the 
Church,  has  rather  formed  the  theory  of  life  than  put  it 
into  practice.  Its  teachings  of  good  have  fallen  into  the 
child's  soul  under  the  form  of  a  mysterious  revelation, 
the  power  and  beauty  of  which  he  has  felt,  but  the 
whole  bearing  of  which  he  has  not  been  able  to  grasp. 
Every  theory,  so  long  as  it  remains  an  abstraction,  dif- 
fers more  or  less  from  the  reality.  It  has  to  descend 
into  the  region  of  facts,  and  come  into  a  contact  with 


EDUCATION   OF  THE   WOKKING- CLASSES.  277 

them  which  does  not  destroy  it ;  far  from  that,  it  con- 
firms it,  but  at  the  same  time  modifies  and  makes  it 
fruitful.  This  is  the  truth  that  there  is  in  the  tenden- 
cies of  positivism.  So  soon,  then,  as  the  mother  and 
the  priest  have  settled  that  sublime,  real,  eternal  theory 
of  religion  and  virtue,  it  is  for  the  factory  to  subject  it 
to  its  inevitable  and  decisive  test — to  confer  upon  it,  or 
withhold  from  it,  "  the  freedom  of  the  city"  in  practical 
life.  If  everything  in  this  new  school  says  to  the  young 
apprentice — ''They  have  been  deceiving  you,  or  rather 
they  have  been  deceiving  themselves ;  the  great  move- 
ment of  men  and  things  is  not,  cannot  be,  such  as  they 
have  told  you" — if  this  contradiction  of  the  belief  of  his 
childhood  penetrates  into  his  mind  and  heart  by  all  the 
teachings  of  word  and  example,  by  all  the  influences  of 
that  moral  atmosphere  that  acts  upon  us  with  so  much 
greater  energy  than  the  physical  atmosphere,  there  is  an 
end  of  the  principles  inculcated  by  his  parents  and  his 
early  teachers ;  he  will  quit  them  as  a  broken  reed,  and 
will  suffer  himself  to  be  drawn  easily  down  the  seduc- 
tive slopes  of  doubt  and  pleasure.  On  the  other  hand, 
let  the  child  happen  upon  one  of  those  factories,  such 
as  we  too  seldom  meet  with  now-a-days,  that  are  a  sort 
of  continuation  of  home  and  school ;  let  him  hear  and  see 
there  the  practical  commentary  on  all  that  he  has  been 
wont  to  believe  and  love;  let  him  breathe  there  that 
wholesome  spiritual  atmosphere,  the  free,  refreshing,  bra- 
cing inspiration  of  the  conscience  and  heart;  and  soon 
you  will  see  coming  out  in  him,  in  manly  shape,  those 
youthful  virtues  over  which  the  two  sacred  wings  of  fam- 
ily and  of  religion  have  been  brooding,  and  which  have 
been  warmed  into  life  by  the  pressure  of  those  two  hearts 
of  which  I  dare  not  say  that  one  surpasses  the  other — in 
such  equal  tenderness  and  piety  hath  God  formed  them 


278  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

both  to  tend  tlie  cradle  of  linman  childhood — the  heart 
of  the  mother,  and  the  heart  of  the  priest.     [Applause.] 

III.  Education  hy  the  Lord's  Day. — I  have  just  been 
speaking  of  the  priest  and  the  mother  in  the  same 
breath.  In  fact,  Gentlemen,  if  I  have  eyer  spoken  of 
the  family  and  the  factory  separately,  I  have  never 
meant,  in  so  doing,  to  isolate  them  from  religion.  In 
these  two  primordial  laws,  of  love  and  labor,  whose  re- 
spective centres,  the  family  and  the  factory,  I  have  in- 
dicated, there  is  involved,  and,  so  to  speak,  interlaced,  a 
third  law,  greater  still,  which,  with  them,  makes  np  the 
web  of  human  existence.     I  mean  prayer. 

We  cannot  be  the  disciples  of  the  school  of  "Inde- 
pendent Morality,"  because  we  cannot  be  the  partisans 
of  the  doctrine  of  an  impersonal  God.  We  have  a 
morality  which  comes  from  the  living  God  and  returns 
to  him ;  and  in  that  golden  chain  which  binds  earth  to 
heaven,  all  the  links  are  not  mere  duties  of  man  to 
man.  If  one  would  be  an  honest  man,  in  the  full  and 
sacred  meaning  of  that  desecrated  name,  he  must  not 
leave  out  of  view,  in  respecting  the  claims  of  personal 
duty,  the  first,  the  most  living,  the  most  sacred  of  all 
personalities.  Now,  this  communion  of  the  living  and 
personal  soul  with  the  personal  and  living  God  is  what 
we  call  prayer,  in  the  largest  and  fullest  sense  of  the 
w^ord.  It  is  not  enough  to  think  of  God ;  we  must 
pray  to  him.  When  men  become  accustomed  to  ap- 
proach God  only  by  the  way  of  thought,  they  end  by 
not  believing  in  God  at  all.  He  vanishes  away,  or  at 
least  becomes  transformed  in  those  confused  and  chilly 
clouds — evanueriint  in  cogitationibus  suis — and  of  the 
Being  of  beings  there  remains  nothing  but  a  sublime 
but  unsubstantial  idea.  There  must  be  the  heart,  the 
acts,  the  movements  of  a  soul  whose  respect  and  love 


EDUCATION   OF  THE   WORKING-CLASSES.  279 

reacli  out  to  the  God  in  wliom  it  has  its  being  on  the 
earth,  to  the  Father  who  awaits  it  in  heaven.  Individual 
prayer,  too,  is  not  enough.  There  must  be  common 
prayer — the  meeting  and  intermingling  of  souls  in 
presence  of  the  same  light  and  heat.  Such  prayer  as 
this  must  have  its  sacred  time  and  its  sacred  place — the 
Sabbath  and  the  temple.  It  remains  for  me.  Gentlemen, 
to  say  of  this  day  and  place  that  they  are,  not  only  be- 
fore, but  after  the  first  communion,  the  highest  school 
of  the  child,  the  youth,  the  man. 

*  Therefore  the  first,  the  most  necessary,  of  all  the  ele- 
ments of  popular  liberty,  is  the  liberty  of  the  Lord's 
day.  There  are  those  who  do  not  understand  this  need 
of  rest  to  soul  and  body.  Commonly  they  are  among 
those  who  employ  labor,  not  among  those  that  do  it — 
those  who  receive  its  profits  without  knowing  its  weari- 
ness. They  are  not  among  those  who  have  torn  their 
hands  on  the  thorns  and  briers  of  the  workshop — on 
the  hard  asperities  of  matter,  or  who  have  been  bend- 
ing for  six  days  over  the  earth  cursed  for  man's  sake, 
the  brow  bathed  in  sweat,  the  soul  exhausted  with  toil. 
Ah !  I  can  conceive  the  nature  of  their  objections  to 
the  law  of  rest — I  see  through  their  repugnance  to  the 
liberty  of  the  Lord's-day !  But  the  workingman,  when- 
ever he  is  not  under  the  pressure  of  physical  or  moral 
violence — w^ienever  he  is  left  to  his  own  instincts — the 
workingman  claims  as  his  dearest  and  most  sacred  right 
the  enjoyment  of  that  day  which  makes  him  indeed 
a  free  man,  indeed  a  husband  and  a  father,  indeed  a  child 
of  God.  It  is  demanded  in  his  behalf  by  the  sense  of 
the  dignity  of  human  nature — by  tlie  exigences  of  family 
life — by  the  religious  wants  of  the  soul — by  the  voice  of 
whatever  is  noblest  and  most  commanding  in  our  nature. 
I  still  remember  the  impressions  of  my  childhood. 


280  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

Suffer  me  this  little  reminiscence,  which  any  one  of  you 
could  recall  from  his  own  memory,  and  which  might 
come  from  among  our  working-men  as  well.  In  the 
morning  when  I  waked,  how  well  I  used  to  know  that 
it  was  Sunday !  In  the  clump  of  trees  near  the  window 
the  bird  was  singing  more  sweetly,  and  the  church-bells 
were  chiming  more  gladly,  the  air  was  fuller  of  music 
and  perfume ;  the  sky  was  so  fair,  the  sun  so  splendid. 
It  was  always  a  mystery  to  me,  and  I  used  to  ask  my- 
self sometimes  how  nature  could  so  change  its  face  and 
be  transfigured  on  a  fixed  day.  But  afterward  I  came 
to  understand  it.  Dear  child,  from  off  whose  brow  the 
baptismal  water  has  hardly  dried,  upon  whose  cheek  the 
mother's  kiss  still  lingers,  it  is  but  the  reflection  of 
thine  own  religious  soul  that  is  cast  upon  the  face  of 
nature,  making  her  more  beautiful — more  like  thyself! 
[Applause.'] 

The  child  rises  with  delight,  and  betakes  himself  to 
the  house  of  worship,  which  is  the  house  of  God,  but 
also  the  house  of  the  people.  The  rich  have  their  pala- 
ces; they  may  be  content,  then,  with  a  modest  chapel. 
But  the  people  must  have  their  cathedrals.  .  .  .  [Ap- 
plause.] They  must  have  festivals  such  as  are  not 
given  to  the  princes  of  the  earth,  such  as  religion  alone 
can  realize.  The  true  popular  fete — if  I  may  use  that 
much-perverted  word — the  true  democratic  festival,  is 
the  Lord's-day.  In  the  vast  basilica  all  the  arts  gather 
themselves  together  about  the  altar,  to  mingle  their  en- 
chantments in  one  supreme  enchantment — architecture, 
sculpture,  painting,  music,  and,  above  all,  eloquence.  Yes, 
eloquence !  how  rude  soever  the  words  of  the  priest  may 
be,  by  the  very  nature  of  the  truths  which  he  proclaims, 
by  the  very  chords  which  he  is  sure  to  thrill  in  human 
hearts,  the  priest  cannot  but  be  eloquent.     [Applause.] 


EDUCATION  OF  THE  WOKKING-CLASSES.  281 

Into  that  presence  come  tlie  people,  feeling  their  own 
greatness.  The  little  children,  as  they  cross  the 
threshold,  are  welcomed  like  kings,  with  the  majestic 
voice  of  the  organs ;  they  hreathe  the  odor  of  incense  and 
of  flowers;  they  listen  to  those  sublime  and  touching 
chants,  those  Latin  words  which  they  do  not  under- 
stand, and  from  which,  nevertheless,  they  learn  so 
much — words  of  eternity  let  fall  into  time — mysterious 
secrets  of  the  far-off  land,  seen  dimly  from  our  exile. 
Transported  with  faith  and  hope  and  love,  they  go  from 
hearth  to  altar,  and  from  altar  back  to  hearth,  and 
bring  back  God's  kiss  with  them  to  their  mother,  even 
as  they  carried  their  mother's  kiss  with  them  to  the 
house  of  God. 

And  yet  this  is  the  day  which  certain  "friends  of  the 
people,"  forsooth,  would  wish  to  extort  from  them. 
False  friends,  that  think  only  of  their  bodies,  that  see 
in  them  nothing  but  their  material  wants,  the  toil  and 
the  enjoyments  of  the  beast  of  burden  !  0  ye  courtiers 
of  democracy,  who  flatter  the  people  while  you  despise 
them,  have  some  faith  in  the  people's  souls,  crede  animcB  ; 
and  that  you  may  have,  do  begin  by  having  a  little 
faith  in  your  own  !  \^Ap])lause,\ 

Yes,  this  law  of  Sabbath  rest,  so  religiously  demo- 
cratic, is  now-a-days  misapprehended  on  every  hand. 
Patriotism  imposes  on  me  something  more  than  an  or- 
dinary consideration  for  my  own  country,  when  I  am 
speaking  on  another  soil  than  hers.  Ko,  no !  I  mis- 
take ;  my  country  asks  of  me  nothing  but  justice,  and  I 
know  that  if  men  may  say  much  in  censure  of  contem- 
porary France,  they  are  bound  in  justice  to  say  much 
in  praise  of  her.  I  will  speak,  then,  without  constraint, 
and  make  my  complaint  of  the  violation  of  the  Lord's 
day  in  the  great  manufacturing  towns  of  France.    It 


282  DISCOUKSES   OF  PATHER  HYACINTHE. 

happens,  now  and  then,  that  I  have  occasion  to  pass 
through  their  streets  on  my  way  to  the  church  to  preach 
the  word  of  God.  I  am  revolving  in  my  heart  tlie  les- 
sons of  the  Gospel,  and  all  along  the  street  there  are 
the  visions  of  hell,  the  ponderous  carts,  the  shrieking 
axles,  the  smoking  pavements,  the  clouds  of  dust  that 
shut  me  out  from  the  sight  of  the  sun  and  of  God !  I 
hide  my  eyes  with  my  hands,  and  groan,  "0  France, 
this  is  thy  doing !" 

But  some  one  will  answer  me — "To  be  sure;  but  it  is 
liberty.  You  must  respect  the  liberty  of  France !  You 
must  respect  the  conscience  of  your  fellow-citizens!" 
Ah,  I  have  nothing  to  say  against  liberty.  I  speak  of  it 
with  lips  all  the  more  sincere  and  earnest  as  they  are 
more  truly  Christian  and  Catholic.  The  hour  cometh, 
but  is  not  yet.  Gentlemen,  when  misunderstandings 
shall  be  done  away.  This  century  shall  not  have  passed 
away  before  it  shall  be  acknowledged  that  that  pontiff 
so  great,  and  at  the  same  time  so  grievously  misunder- 
stood, Pius  IX.,  who  has  battled  so  bravely  against  revo- 
lution, is  the  same  who  has  made  the  boldest  and  most 
successful  advances — yes,  the  most  successful ;  I  say  it 
notwithstanding  apparent  failures — toward  liberty  in 
Europe.  Let  us  not  be  guilty  of  that  for  which  Saint 
Paul  reproached  the  Christians  of  Corinth — let  us  not 
"  divide  Christ" — let  us  not  separate  Pius  IX.  in  twain. 
For  my  part,  I  take  him  in  the  whole  of  his  glorious 
career,  from  his  most  blameless  prosperity  down  to  his 
most  touching  misfortunes — from  the  time  when  the 
flag  of  progress  and  reform  was  unfurled  by  his  priestly 
and  royal  hands,  before  1848,  down  to  the  convocation 
of  the  (Ecumenical  Council,  which  is  greeted  at  this 
very  hour,  not  only  with  the  applauses  of  Catholics,  but 
with  the  sympathies  of  Protestants  and  of  Eationalists. 


EDUCATION   OF  THE  WOEKING-CLASSES.  283 

No,  we  have  no  disposition  to  trench  upon  liberty. 
We  would  not  interfere  with  the  advantage  of  the  work- 
man, nor  the  exigencies  of  the  manufacturing  interest. 
What  contemptible  sophistries  are  these!  Have  you 
never  heard  of  two  great  embodiments  of  liberty — two 
great  organizations  of  industry,  which  are  as  good  as 
your  own,  if  not  better — England  and  the  United  States  ? 
I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  visiting  London.  I  never 
shall  forget  the  emotion  which  filled  me  at  the  sight  of 
that  city  like  the  ancient  metropolis  of  the  seas  of  which 
the  prophet  speaks — "the  woman  that  sitteth  upon 
many  waters."  And  in  those  mighty  floods,  I  saw  no 
vision  as  of  the  abyss,  but  only  a  vast  and  solemn  equi- 
librium, as  it  had  been  the  majesty  of  a  throne  rocking 
and  yet  stable.  There  she  sat,  the  great  empress  of  the 
seas,  giving  law  to  isles  and  continents,  stretching  afar 
over  kings  and  peoples,  not,  like  them  of  old,  the  rod  of 
oppression,  but  the  beneficent  sceptre  of  her  riches  and 
her  liberty.  And  I  heard  the  din  of  her  vast  industry, 
and  through  the  streets  there  poured  the  living  sea  of 
men  and  vehicles.  Then,  by  and  by,  there  dawned  a  day 
which  was  like  the  days  of  my  childhood,  a  day  such  as 
public  life  in  my  own  land  has  not  now  to  show,  a  day 
Tvhich  was  not  like  other  days.  'No  noisy  wagons  now 
in  the  streets ;  no  throngs  hurrying  to  business.  The 
giant  machine  that  had  been  roaring  and  thundering 
the  day  before,  had  suddenly  stood  still  as  if  before  the 
vision  of  God.  The  great  movement  of  British  indus- 
try was  hushed,  and.  in  the  streets  I  saw  naught  but 
families  going  their  way,  calm  and  cheerful,  to  the  place 
of  prayer;  I  heard  naught  but  the  sweet  chiming  of 
Protestant  bells,  that  remember  that  they  once  were 
Catholic,  and  wait  the  day  when  they  shall  be  Catholic 
again.     [Ap2:)laitse.] 


284  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

Let  no  one  say,  "England  is  an  aristocratic  and 
feudal  power ;  her  Sabbath  rest  is  one  of  those  relics  of 
the  middle  ages  which  the  breath  of  modern  progress 
will  soon  have  swept  away."  I  look  across  the  ocean, 
and  there  again  I  find  this  same  Anglo-Saxon  race  clad 
in  like  grandeur  under  forms  the  most  unlike.  This 
time  there  is  neither  medisevalism  nor  aristocracy.  It 
is  the  foremost  prow  of  modern  ciyilization  under  full 
headway  on  her  glorious  and  daring  course  toward  an 
unknown  future.  It  is,  I  love  to  think,  the  people 
chosen  of  God  to  renew  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  to 
prepare  for  those  old  truths  and  institutions  which 
cannot  pass  away,  newer  and  more  enduring  garments. 
Now,  the  United  States  keeps  holy  the  Lord's- day,  just 
like  England,  and  sends  back  to  us,  across  the  ocean, 
that  same  answer  of  God's  silence  to  man's  profanations. 
[Applause.'] 

When  I  speak  thus.  Gentlemen,  in  eulogy  of  these 
great  countries,  I  do  not  mean  to  recommend  to  you  a 
servile  imitation  of  them.  Neither  do  I  ask  to  have 
engrossed  among  our  law^s  anything  that  is  not  settled 
in  our  character.  The  law  exists  in  France,  indeed,  but 
it  exists  as  a  dead  letter.  I  do  not  ask  to  see  it  enforced. 
I  am  satisfied  that  in  countries  like  France  and  Bel- 
gium there  would  be  immense  difficulties  in  adopting 
that  course.  What  I  ask  is  not  the  enforcement,  but 
the  liberty  of  the  Sabbath,  Liberty  through  the  Sab- 
bath ;  and  the  Sabbath  through  liberty !  [  Good,  good; 
thafs  it  /]  Yes  ;  I  say  again  the  liberty  of  the  people 
through  the  Sabbath,  and  the  observance  of  the  Sab- 
bath through  liberty ! 

If  I  had  the  right  to  speak  to  governments,  I  would 
do  it  w4th  the  respect  which  is  due  to  them,  with  all 
their  faults.    We  have  been  applauding  here  the  no^ 


EDUCATION   OF  THE   WORKING-CLASSES.  285 

words  of  M.  de  Maistre,  when  speaking  of  Enssia:  "I 
respect  everything  respectable,  in  sovereigns  or  in  peo- 
ple." I  would  tell  them,  then,  "  Give  your  own  ex- 
ample, and  I  ask  no  other  support  from  you  for  the 
cause  for  which  I  plead.  Let  the  public  works  scrupu- 
lously respect  the  Lord's-day,  and  the  State  will  compel 
the  individual  to  blush  before  it."  [Applause.]  And 
you,  lords  of  the  forge  and  the  loom — organizers,  legis- 
lators, monarch  s  of  labor  and  wealth — you  can  do  more 
for  this  cause  than  crowned  heads  can  do.  You  have 
been  mighty  in  crushing  the  liberty  of  the  Sabbath ; 
you  shall  be  mightier  yet  in  restoring  it !     [Applmise.'] 

And  now.  Gentlemen,  before  I  close,  suffer  me  to 
make  one  last  and  pressing  appeal  to  your  zeal  in  favor 
of  these  three  great  restorations  among  the  working- 
classes — the  family,  the  factory,  the  Sabbath.  Yester- 
day, in  language  such  as  only  he  can  use,  but  such  as 
spoke  the  feelings  of  us  all,  the  Count  de  Falloux  said 
to  the  illustrious  Bishop  of  Orleans,  "  My  lord,  you  have 
recommended  to  us  early  rising,  and  you  have  enforced 
precept  with  example;  for  we  never  fail  to  find  you 
awake  bright  and  early  in  every  good  cause."  Now, 
I  wish  every  one  of  us  might  be  bright  and  early,  too — 
that  we  Catholics  might  have  the  honor  of  leading  all 
the  rest  in  the  practical  understanding  of  what  is  get- 
ting ready  for  us  in  no  distant  future. 

AVhat  is  getting  ready — men  call  it  by  an  ill-defined 
name,  a  name  that  provokes  excitement  and  contention 
— democracy.  I  tried  to  explain  this  word,  nearly  two 
years  ago,  at  Notre-Dame,  in  Paris,*  and  was  taken  to 
task  for  it  by  some  people.  Since  then,  I  have  come 
upon  a  very  similar  definition  in  the  recent  work  of  that 
courageous  bishop  whom  I  have  just  named.     I  reassert 

*  Advent  Conferences,  1865.    Conference  Third. 


286  DISCOURSES   OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

it,  tlien,  witli  pride,  and  say  to  all  those  who  make  use 
of  this  name : — There  are  two  sorts  of  democracy  in  the 
Avorld ;  of  which  sort  is  yours  ?  Is  it  radical  revolution  ? 
Is  it  the  prostration  of  all  greatness,  and  intelligence, 
and  virtue, — of  the  whole  social  hierarchy — before  the 
mere  force  of  numbers  ?  Is  it  the  brutal  levelling  pro- 
cess which  passes  over  everything  to  debase  and  crush  ? 
If  that  is  your  democracy,  it  is  the  worst  of  all  barba- 
risms, and  we  will  fight  it,  if  need  be,  to  the  death.  But 
if  by  democracy  is  meant  the  gradual  and  peaceful  ele- 
vation of  the  toiling  and  suffering  masses  whom  in  the 
country  we  call  the  peasants,  and  in  the  cities  the  work- 
ing-class,— their  elevation  to  fuller  education,  to  more 
settled  prosperity,  to  a  purer  and  more  effectual  moral- 
ity, and,  as  a  legitimate  consequence,  to  a  wider  social 
influence, — we  are  on  the  side  of  that  democracy,  not 
only  because  we  are  sons  of  this  generation,  but  because 
we  are  sons  of  the  Gospel.* 

Already  it  begins  to  dawn.  In  behalf  of  you  all,  I 
greet  this  Christian  democracy  that  settles  itself  deep 
and  firm  by  the  hearth-stones  of  our  homes,  in  the 
shops  of  labor,  in  the  sanctuary  of  our  temples.  It  will 
change  history,  which  in  past  time  has  never  known 
how  to  write  of  anything  but  the  intrigues  of  the  cun- 
ning and  the  conquests  of  the  violent,  the  impotence 
of  state-craft,  the  corruption,  too  often,  of  riches  and 
of  the  arts.  It  will  give  as  a  subject  for  the  meditations 
of  sages,  the  intelligent  and  faithful  fulfilment  of  those 
laws  of  private  life  to  which  public  life  itself  is  subor- 
dinate, if  we  did  but  know  it.     It  will  rear  up  a  grand 


*  "If  democracy  is  the  elevation  of  the  common  people,  the  peasants,  the 
working-men,  to  a  higher  grade  of  education,  prosperity,  morality,  and  legiti- 
macy, then  the  Church  goes  for  democracy." — VAtheisme  et  lepeHl  social,  by 
the  BiPhop  of  Orleans  [Dnpanloup].    1866,  p.  166. 


EDUCATION   OF   THE   WOEKIXG-CLASSES.  287 

people,  which  shall  seek  the  practical  happiness  of  its 
existence,  as  well  as  the  inspiration  of  its  literature  and 
art,  in  the  affections  of  the  family,  the  struggles  and 
the  joj's  of  labor,  the  chaste  emotions  of  worship,  and 
the  splendid  festivals  of  religion. 

Doubtless  the  crisis  through  which  we  are  passing  is 
one  of  the  most  terrible,  one  of  the  most  profound,  that 
our  race  has  ever  known.  Let  our  efforts,  our  courage, 
and  our  faith  rise  to  the  height  of  these  solemn  events, 
but  let  lis  not  doubt  concerning  the  final  issue.  I  can 
understand  the  ruin  of  the  organizations  of  heathen 
society;  but  as  for  society  that  has  been  touched  by 
Jesus  Christ, — as  for  humanity  which  for  centuries  has 
had  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel, — ^^as  for  Europe,  in  a  word, 
it  may  suffer,  it  may  agonize,  it  cannot  die.  [Proh^iged 
cqjpJause.  For  a  few  minutes  tlie  j^roceedings  of  the  Con- 
gress were  siisjjended.^ 


MEMOEIAL  LETTER 

ox    THE    LIFE    OF 

MONSEIGNEUR    BAUDRY,    BISHOP    OF    P^RIGUEUX. 


[The  religious  and  theological  teacher  to  whom  Father  Hya- 
cinthe  gratefully  ascribes  the  strongest  and  best  influences  that 
affected  his  student-life,  was  the  Abbe  Baudiy,  professor  in  the 
theological  seminary  of  St.  Sulpice,  at  Paris,  and  afterward 
bishop  of  Perigueux.  The  following  Letter  was  addressed  to 
the  editor  of  a  posthumous  volume  of  Bishop  Baudry,  entitled, 
"  Christian  Thoughts  on  the  Heart  of  Jesus,"  {Pensees  Chretieniies 
sur  le  Cceiir  de  Jesus).] 

My  Dear  Friexd: — I  wish  to  thank  you  for  the 
noble  book  w^hich  you  have  given  to  the  public ;  and  I 
make  bold  to  do  it,  not  in  my  own  name  alone,  but  in 
the  name  of  many  others  who,  like  us,  are  disciples  and 
spiritual  children  of  Bishop  Baudry.  You  have  done 
a  work  of  filial  piety,  in  which  every  one  of  us  must 
feel  an  interest.  Perhaps,  without  suspecting  it,  you 
have  really  brought  out  the  best  possible  life  of  our  com- 
mon father.  His  outward  life  w^ould  furnish  but  little 
of  incident.  It  was  passed  almost  exclusively  in  the 
cloisters  of  our  seminaries.  It  was  that  of  the  most 
regular  and  modest  of  Sulpitians — which  is  a  great 
thing  to  say  for  the  heavenly  life,  but  very  little  for 
the  earthly.  His  true  life  was  his  inner  life,  the  life  of 
his  intellect  and  heart ;  but  above  all,  of  his  heart,  for 

13 


290  DISCOUESES   OF   FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

with  this  great  Christian  spirit,  both  the  root  and  the 
fruit  of  tlie  intellect  were  in  the  heart.  Has  not  Bishop 
Baudry  really  unfolded  to  us  his  own  heart,  while  attempt- 
ing to  speak  only  of  that  Heart  of  Jesus  which  was  the  ob- 
ject of  his  constant  thought,  his  intimate  and  confidential 
fellowship,  and  his  practical  imitation?  How  truth- 
fully and  charmingly  you  show  him  to  us,  at  evening, 
in  that  dear  little  chamber  where  we  knew  and  loved 
him  so  w^ell,  pressing  out  into  his  soul's  cup  the  sweet 
or  bitter  juices  of  the  day's  experience,  mingling  and 
assimilating  them  into  that  highest  unity  of  man,  the 
unity  of  his  love,  and  then  pouring  them  out  over  these 
pages,  written  for  himself  alone,  like  the  outpouring  of 
his  soul  into  the  bosom  of  Jesus  Christ. 

But  in  point  of  fact  it  was  not  your  direct  or  princi- 
pal aim  to  reveal  to  the  world  one  of  the  loftiest  and 
most  secluded  souls  that  God  has  granted  to  his  Church 
in  our  age;  it  was  your  main  purpose  to  help  in  throw- 
ing new  and  vivid  light  on  that  devotion  to  The  Sacred 
Heart  which,  in  our  time,  is  one  of  the  strongest  attrac- 
tions of  Christian  piety.  At  its  very  origin  a  subject 
of  controversy,  and  ever  since,  for  many,  even  among 
believers,  a  subject  of  distrust,  this  devotion  has  most 
commonly  been  defended,  just  as  it  has  been  attacked, 
by  superficial  arguments,  in  its  relation  to  the  imagina- 
tion and  the  sensibilities.  Without  disregarding  either 
of  these  two  aspects,  our  author  goes  deeper,  even  to  the 
mysteries  of  man's  moral  constitution.  Heathenism 
had  placed  the  seat  of  life  sometimes  in  the  abstractions 
of  the  intellect,  sometimes  in  the  emotions  of  the  sen- 
sibilities. Christianity  puts  it  back  where  it  belongs,  in 
the  heart,  the  centre  in  which  thought  and  sentiment 
come  together,  the  one  to  receive  real  life,  the  other  to 
gain  ideal  purity,  both  to  come  under  the  fructifying 


MEMORIAL   LETTER.  291 

control  of  the  will.  This  is  the  point  of  view  from 
which  Bishop  Baudry  contemplated  his  subject.  The 
life  of  man  radiating  from  the  heart,  the  heart  of  man 
having  its  object  and  its  law  in  the  heart  of  God  mani- 
fest in  the  flesh,  such  is  the  substance  of  this  book,  full 
of  instruction  as  it  is  of  piety,  and  which,  by  a  beauti- 
ful care  of  Providence,  is  brought  before  the  public 
amid  the  joy  and  enthusiasm  of  the  festivals  in  honor 
of  the  lover  and  evangelist  of  The  Sacred  Heart,  the 
blessed  Marguerite-Marie. 

These  pages,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  bear  the  im- 
press of  a  metaphysics  sometimes  so  profound,  and  a 
mysticism  always  so  tender,  that  they  might  seem  hardly 
appropriate  to  the  wants  of  society,  in  which,  even 
among  Christians,  contrary  tendencies  unhappily  pre- 
vail. The  objection  is  so  plausible,  that  I  could  pardon 
a  less  acute  and  earnest  mind  than  yours  for  being 
alarmed  by  it.  But,  thank  God,  you  understand  that 
the  prejudices  of  the  day  need  not  to  be  humored,  but 
to  be  withstood.  You  justly  believe  that  it  is  not  for 
us  to  level  down  the  summits  of  doctrine  and  piety,  be- 
cause too  many  of  our  contemporaries  fail  to  reach 
them.  In  our  own  time,  as  in  all  past  time,  the  two 
wings  with  which  to  mount  upward  to  these  summits 
are  the  metaphysical  and  the  mystical — intellect  and 
love.  This  powerful  and  harmonious  flight  character- 
izes all  the  masters  in  divi7iity,  as  they  used  to  be  c^ed, 
from  St.  John  and  St.  Paul  to  Origen  and  St.  Augus- 
tine; from  St.  Bonaventure  and  Gerson  down  to  St. 
John  of  the  Cross  and  M.  Olier.  To  reproach  you  with 
this  publication  as  an  anachronism,  would  be  equivalent 
to  reproaching  Bishop  Baudry  for  having  continued 
among  us  that  succession  which  can  never  fail,  and  that 
race  which  can  never  become  extinct. 


292  DISCOURSES  OF  FATHER  HYACINTHE. 

Be  of  good  cheer,  then,  my  friend.  This  unfinished 
book  (you  have  called  our  attention,  in  advance,  to  its 
incompleteness),  this  artless  book,  the  expression  of 
which  is  forgotten  in  the  thought,  and  has  none  but  an 
unconscious  eloquence — this  book,  whose  very  substance, 
full  of  beams  of  light,  of  horizons  half  unveiled,  and 
of  sublime  but  fragmentary  studies,  reveals  less  the 
labor  of  the  intellect  than  the  inspiration  of  grace — 
this  book  will  do  its  own  work,  as  did  the  life  of  which 
it  is  the  sweet  and  touching  memorial.  The  life,  like  the 
book,  was  unfinished,  and  yet  how  fruitful !  As  he  used 
to  tell  us  at  St.  Sulpice,  and  as  you  remind  us  in  your 
afiecting  preface,  our  friend  was  only  an  initiator.  It 
was  his  mission  to  think  rather  than  write,  and  the 
works  he  has  left  behind  him  are  not  books,  but  dis- 
ciples. This  book,  which  is  hardly  to  be  called  a  book, 
because  it  is  so  much  more,  will  be  for  many  an  initia- 
tion ;  it  will  scatter  germs  of  thought  and  virtue  in 
men's  souls,  and  will  join  to  us  brothers  and  sisters  un- 
known, but  not  unloved,  in  that  spiritual  family  in 
which,  unworthy  as  we  are,  it  is  our  honor  to  be  counted 
among  the  first-born. 

Accept,  my  dear  friend,  with  the  renewed  expression 
of  my  thanks,  that  of  my  fraternal  attachment  in  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Brother  Hyacinthe, 

IP  Of  the  Immaculate  Conception, 

Barefooted  Carmelite. 
Pakis,  August  21, 1865. 


APPEISTDIX. 


LETTER  OF  MONSEIGNEUR  DUPANLOUP, 

Bishop  of  Okleans, 

TO  THE  CLERGY  OF  HIS  DIOCESE, 

On  iJie  proposed  Definition  of  the  Dogma  of  InfalUbilUy  in  the 
(Ecumenical  Council. 


Gentlemen:  In  sending  me  your  farewell  greetings  and 
prayers  before  my  departure  for  Rome,  you  have  spoken  of  the 
trouble  and  anxiety  produced  among  the  faithful  of  your  parishes 
by  the  violent  controversy  that  has  been  excited  in  the  news- 
papers concerning  the  approaching  Council,  and  especially  con- 
cerning the  definition  of  the  doctrine  of  papal  infallibility. 

This  anxiety  I  fully  appreciate. 

The  Holy  Father  and  his  privileges  are  here  in  question- 
matters  of  closest  interest  to  the  Catholic  heart.  It  is  natural  in 
filial  piety  to  wish  to  invest  a  father  with  every  gift  and  preroga- 
tive ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  how  painful  it  is  for  sons  to  hear 
discussed  what  they  would  rejoice  to  have  proclaimed  by  accla- 
mation as  their  father's  honor  and  gloiy. 

Controversies,  then,  upon  the  infallibility  of  the  sovereign  Pon- 
tiflf  cannot  but  have  enkindled  in  men's  minds  these  two  feelings, 
both  of  which  are  worthy  of  respect. 

But,  however  sweet  and  dear  these  suggestions  of  filial  love 
may  be,  there  is.  Gentlemen — you  feel  it — something  more  to  be 
considered  and  listened  to  in  the  proclamation  of  a  dogma  than 


294  APPENDIX. 

the  impulses  of  sentiment.  There  are  reasons  pro  and  con. — 
reasons  on  which,  in  a  question  not  yet  settled,  great  minds  have 
taken  different  sides ;  there  are,  besides,  the  very  interests  of  the 
venerated  and  cherished  Father  himself,  which  might  be  com- 
promised in  the  attempt  to  exalt  them ;  there  are,  above  all,  the 
interests  of  the  Church,  which  take  precedence  of  his  interests ; 
there  is,  finally,  the  sacred  welfare  of  souls,  the  present  condition 
of  minds,  which  must  be  taken  into  account ;  in  a  word,  by  the 
side  of  supposed  advantages  there  are  also  objections  which  must 
be  weighed  deliberately  and  gravely.  All  this  should  not  be  for- 
gotten. Gentlemen,  unless  we  wish  to  expose  ourselves,  despite 
our  good  intentions,  to  the  risk  of  mingling  contention  with  love, 
and  turning  a  matter  of  theology  into  a  matter  of  enthusiasm  or 
of  anger. 

God  forbid.  Gentlemen,  that  I  should  wish  to  give  pain  to  a 
single  one  of  my  venerable  brethren  in  the  episcopate !  Had 
bishops  been  the  only  ones  to  utter  their  views  on  this  subject 
according  to  the  inspiration  of  their  conscience,  I  should  have 
kept  silence,  and  listened  with  respect  to  respectful  discussions, 
without  contradicting  their  doctrines  for  or  against  the  question, 
or  their  views  for  or  against  its  opportuneness.  "Without  wishing 
to  judge  the  conduct  of  any  one,  such  would  have  been  my  own. 
And  if,  subsequently,  at  the  Council,  I  should  have  been  called 
upon  to  decide  one  way  or  the  other,  I  should  have  done  so,  for 
my  own  part,  in  the  simplicity  of  my  conscience,  in  the  truthful- 
ness and  charity  of  my  soul. 

Such,  however,  has  not  been  the  case — far  from  it ;  and  the 
question,  launched  upon  the  public  in  a  very  different  manner, 
has  evoked  the  anxieties  which  you  have  made  known  to  me, 
and  upon  which,  according  to  my  promise  to  you,  I  make  it  my 
duty  to  give  you  my  opinion. 

But,  before  doing  this,  I  must  recall  to  your  minds  what  has 
been  said  and  done  up  to  this  time,  and  how  the  question  stands 
at  this  moment. 

I.  I  shall  begin,  Gentlemen,  by  observing,  that  such  a  question 
was  a  matter  for  the  Council,  and  should  have  been  treated  by  it 


•    ^  APPENDIX.  295 

alone.  Unfortunately,  intemperate  journalists  have  not  left  this 
task  to  the  future  Assembly  of  the  Church.  Storming  the  doors 
of  the  Council,  even  before,  a  long  while  before  it  could  assemble, 
they  have  made  haste  to  open  the  debates  upon  one  of  the  most 
delicate  theological  subjects,  and  to  announce  beforehand  how 
the  Council  should  and  must  decide.  It  was  an  effort  made  to 
create  a  current  in  public  opinion  favorable  to  their  desires,  and 
to  bear  down  upon  the  assembled  bishops  with  all  the  pressure 
of  this  anticipatory  judgment. 

Shall  I  go  so  far  as  to  mention  the  pious  artifices  resorted  to 
for  the  same  object  ?  Some  have  gone  to  the  point  of  distributing 
in  the  streets — I  have  seen  it  myself,  two  years  ago ;  tlie}^  are 
keeping  it  up  to  this  day — thousands  of  little  handbills,  with  the 
vow  to  believe  in  the  personal  and  separate  infiillibility  of  the 
Pope.  They  have  got  them  signed  by  good  Catholics,  many  of 
whom,  assuredly,  would  scarcely  claim  to  be  theologians,  and 
certainly  do  not  understand  the  first  word  of  the  question,* 

Two  papers  especially,  the  Cmltd  Cattolica  and  the  Uhwers, 
have  taken  the  most  astonishing  steps.  While  the  Holy  Father 
was  enjoining  prudent  and  rigorous  silence  upon  the  counsellors 
of  the  Roman  congregations  charged  with  the  work  of  prepara- 
tion for  the  Council,  they  did  not  hesitate  to  throw  open  to  the 
public  questions  which,  in  their  opinion,  should  be  agitated  and 
settled  by  the  future  Assembly.  They  announced,  in  particular, 
that  the  matter  of  the  personal  infallibility  of  the  Pope  would  be 
defined  by  it;  even  more,  that  it  would  be  defined  by  accla- 
mation. 

This  delicate  question  having  been  raised  after  this  fashion, 
and  dragged  into  the  street  and  the  press,  a  Belgian  prelate,  my 
reverend  friend  Mgr,  Dechamps,  recently  nominated  Archbishop 
of  Malines,  has  published  a  special  work,  entitled  :  Is  it  opjwrtune 
to  define  in  the  approacldng  Council  the  Infallibility  of  the  Pope  f 
and  he  answered  in  the  affirmative.     The  new  Archbishop  of 

*  In  certain  towns  the  laity  have  taken  the  initiative  with  their  pastors, 
going  to  them  and  requesting  them  to  sign  either  the  vow  of  belief  in  infalli- 
bility, or  one  of  the  petitions  to  the  Council  on  this  subject 


296  APPENDIX. 

Westminster,  the  pious  and  eloquent  Mgr.  Manning,  had  akeady, 
in  a  prior  M^ork,  treated  the  same  question,  from  the  same  point 
of  view,  and  he  has  subsequently  taken  it  up  again,  still  more 
positively,  in  a  second  letter  to  his  clergy.  The  English  papers, 
Catholic  and  Protestant,  have  taken  an  active  part  in  the  contro- 
versy. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  German  bishops,  convened  at  Fulda — 
as  announced  several  days  ago  by  the  Memorial  Diplomatique — in 
addition  to  that  letter  which  all  Europe  has  admired  for  its 
moderation,  elevation,  and  dignity,  have  addressed  the  Sovereign 
Pontiff  a  memorial  (without,  however,  exposing  it  to  the  greedy 
publicity  of  the  newspapers),  asking  him  not  to  permit  the  ques- 
tion of  his  personal  infallibility  to  be  broached  at  the  approach- 
ing Council. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  when  the  controversy  was  revived 
in  France  among  several  of  our  venerated  colleagues.  Unfortu- 
nately, the  papers  immediately  took  it  up  with  extreme  ardor. 
The  quick  and  keen  simultaneousness  of  the  attacks  aroused  the 
public  :  a  certain  portion  of  the  press,  under  whose  eyes  this  de- 
bate was  carried  on,  has  made  deplorable  sport  of  it,  and  well- 
known  publicists  have  thrown  ridicule  upon  what  they  call  "  the 
Holy  War:' 

Finally,  other  writers,  laymen  and  ecclesiastics,  in  France,  in 
England,  and  in  German}'-,  following  the  example  thus  set  them, 
have  broken  silence  and  expressed,  in  their  turn,  their  opinions 
and  their  fears. 

With  this  spectacle  before  one's  eyes,  it  was  difficult  not  to  ask 
one's  self:  If  the  question  is  already  treated  in  this  manner  be- 
fore the  public,  what  will  be  the  case  if  it  comes  to  be  presented 
to  the  Council  ?  And  it  was  impossible  not  to  feel,  once  more, 
the  grievous  fault  of  the  journalists,  who,  with  the  greatest  in- 
discretion, have  been  the  first  to  start  a  question  of  this  nature. 

The  question  is  indeed  a  grave  one.  For  it  is  the  question  of 
proclaiming  a  new  dogma,  the  dogma  of  the  personal  and  sepa- 
rate infallibility  of  the  Pope. 

We  say  "  a  new  dogma,"  not  in  the  sense  you  understand,  Gen- 


ArrEXDix.  297 

tleraen,  that  a  dof^ma  is  created  by  the  Council :  the  Church  does 
not  create  dogmas,  it  declares  them.  And  there  must  be  no  am- 
biguity here.  I  say  a  new  dogma  in  this  sense,  that  for  eighteen 
centuries  the  faithful  have  never  been  held  to  this  belief  under 
penalty  of  ceasing  to  be  Catholics. 

It  is  a  question,  then,  of  obliging  all  Catholics  hereafter  to  be- 
lieve, on  pain  of  anathema,  that  the  Pope  is  infallible,  even — I 
make  use  of  the  very  words  of  His  Grace  the  Archbishop  of 
Westminster — even  when  he  pronounces  alone,  "  without  the 
EPISCOPAL  BODY,  UNITED  OR  DISPERSED,"  and  that  he  can  define 
dogmas  by  himself,  "  separately,  independently  of  the 
EPISCOPATE,"*  without  any  co-operation  of  the  bishops,  express 
or  implied,  antecedent  or  subsequent. 

Now  this,  as  you  see,  is  no  speculative  dogma ;  it  is  a  preroga- 
tive which,  in  its  practical  realization,  would  be  fraught  with  the 
most  serious  consequences. 

Such  is  the  question  that  we  see  discussed  every  morning,  and 
decided  off-hand  by  an  overweening  press,  with  the  strongest 
freedom. 

Besides,  many  treat  the  matter  just  as  if,  in  their  eyes,  there 
was  no  difficulty  in  it  whatever.  "  It  is  enough,"  says  one  of 
them,  "  to  know  our  catechism."  Bossuet,  apparently,  did  not 
know  his ;  nor  Fenelon,  who  had  a  very  different  idea  of  infalli- 
bility from  Bellarmln's ;  nor  even  Bellarmin  himself,  who,  on 
this  point,  did  not  agree  at  all  with  other  Roman  theologians. 
To  hear  these  editors,  one  would  suppose  that  the  proclamation 
of  the  dogma  of  Papal  infallibility  is  so  necessary,  so  easy,  and 
so  certain,  that  the  Council  will  not  even  have  to  examine  it ; 
and  to  doubt  its  decision,  even  for  a  moment,  would  be  to  insult 
it :  it  would  also  subject  one  to  the  suspicion,  at  least,  of  ver}' 
lukewarm  devotion  to  the  Church  and  the  Pope. 

This  is  what  they  say,  accompanied  with  such  abuse  of  those 
who  do  not  agree  with  them,  that,  in  truth,  all  restraint  is  forgot- 
ten, and  the  debate  becomes  strangely  acrimonious. 

*  Pastoral  Letter  of  Archbishop  Manning,  on  The  (Ecumenical  Council  and 
the  InfdUlbUity  of  the  Soman  Fonfiff.— Postscript. 


298  APPENDIX. 

Yet  nobody  knows  in  the  least  what  the  Council  will  see  fit  to 
do  or  not  to  do  on  this  point — the  Council  that  does  not  yet 
exist. 

But  meanwhile,  Gentlemen,  these  excesses  of  controversy 
trouble  the  faithful,  and  place  them  in  the  evidently  dangerous 
situation  that  you  have  indicated  to  me.  For,  if  the  Council 
should  see  fit  not  to  follow  the  line  so  imperatively  laid  down  for 
it,  would  it  not  appear,  in  the  eyes  of  many,  to  have  fallen  short 
of  its  duty  ?  It  is  asserted,  and  justly,  that  the  bishops  will  have 
full  and  entire  liberty  at  the  Council.  But,  truly,  what  liberty  is 
left  them  henceforth,  by  such  discussions,  conducted  in  such  a 
manner  by  the  newspaper- press  ?  To  judge  from  the  way  in 
which  the  debate  has  been  carried  on,  do  they  not  seem  to  de- 
nounce beforehand,  as  schismatics  and  heretics,  those  who  will 
permit  themselves  to  be  of  a  different  opinion  ? 

These,  Gentlemen,  are  common-sense  considerations,  presented 
to  me  orally  and  in  writing,  not  merely  by  yourselves,  but  again 
and  again  by  a  host  of  the  best  and  most  Christian  spirits,  who 
are  interested  and  agitated  by  these  disputes  tliat  are  raging  near 
and  far. 

I  have  waited  long  before  deciding  to  speak  on  such  a  subject. 
You  have  decided  me.  My  anxiety  w^as  not,  indeed,  to  know 
whether  certain  men  would  suspect,  more  or  less,  and  calumni- 
ate my  zeal  for  the  Pope  and  the  Church,  but  to  know  what  I 
had  to  do  to  serve  those  cherished  causes  as  I  ought.  I  have  ex- 
amined at  length,  in  all  its  aspects,  and  especially  from  a  practi- 
cal point  of  view,  the  question  discussed  in  the  newspapers.  I 
have  found  in  it,  for  my  part,  difiiculties  of  more  than  one  kind — 
diflSculties  which,  it  seems  to  me,  should  strike  even  those  who 
are  most  convinced,  theologically,  of  the  Papal  infallibility. 

Assuredly,  I  have  no  relish  for  precipitating  myself  into  so 
violent  an  affi-ay.  I  deplore  the  controversy  that  is  being  carried 
on  before  the  public,  and  if  I  write,  it  is  not  to  aggravate,  but 
rather  to  calm,  and  even,  were  that  possible,  to  suppress  it.  For, 
for  my  part,  I  hold  it  to  be  very  inopportune,  much  to  be  regret- 
ted, for  the  sake  of  the  Holy  See  itself;   and  the  quarrels  that 


APPENDIX.  299 

have  just  taken  place  have  only  strengthened  my  conviction,  al- 
ready of  long  standing,  as  to  this  inopportuneness. 

These  difficulties  it  is — without  going  to  the  bottom  of  the  the- 
ological question — that  I  would  simply  set  forth  in  this  paper. 

I  do  not  discuss  the  question  of  infallibility  itself,  but  only  its 
opportuneness.  And,  moreover,  the  views  that  I  shall  present 
here  are  no  merely  personal  views  of  my  own.  I  have  often 
discussed  them  wnth  a  great  number  of  my  venerated  colleagues, 
both  in  France  and  elsewhere,  and  these  reasons  have  seemed  to 
lis  so  weighty,  to  them  as  well  as  myself,  that  at  the  very  least 
they  are  of  a  kind  to  bring  the  religious  press  to  reflection,  and 
to  persuade  it,  at  last,  to  leave  such  delicate  discussions  for  the 
bishops. 

11.  These  debates,  as  I  have  said,  have  no  less  astonished  than 
saddened  me.  For,  indeed,  prior  to  this  meddling  and  these 
noisy  demonstrations  on  the  part  of  a  certain  portion  of  the 
press,  the  question  had  not  been  raised.  God  be  praised,  silence 
had  come  over  quarrels  which  it  would  be  better,  I  have  ever 
thought,  to  forget  than  to  revive.  Never  had  the  authority  of 
the  Holy  Father  been  more  respected  in  the  Church,  never  had 
his  voice  been  better  listened  to.  Never  had  the  bishops  been 
more  ready  to  gather  around  the  papal  throne,  hurrying — not  by 
the  order  even,  but  at  the  simple  wish  of  the  Pope — from  the 
ends  of  the  world  to  the  centre  of  Catholic  Christendom. 

Wherein,  then,  was  it  possible  for  the  Council  to  be  an  occasion 
of  provoking  controversy  upon  papal  prerogatives  ?  Was  it  for 
this  object,  was  h;  to  have  himself  declared  infallible,  that  the 
Holy  Father  wished  to  convene  the  bishops  of  the  whole  world  ? 
Did  the  definition  of  the  doctrine  of  personal  infallibility  enter 
at  all  into  the  motives  and  the  causes  of  the  convocation  of  the 
Council  ?    Not  the  least  in  the  world. 

When  Pope  Pius  IX.,  in  bis  two  celebrated  allocutions,  an- 
nounced to  the  bishops  assembled  at  Rome,  in  1867,  his  project 
of  convoking  an  (Ecumenical  Council,  he  did  not  say  one  word 
upon  the  necessity  or  the  expediency  of  having  the  future  as- 
sembly set  lip  his  pergonal  infallibility  as  a  dogma  of  faith. 


300  APPENDIX. 

Neither  did  tlie  five  hundred  bishops,  then  met  at  Rome,  in 
their  address  to  the  Holy  Father,  in  reply  to  this  communication, 
say  one  word  about  this  question. 

Finally,  in  the  Bull  of  Convocation,  in  which  the  Holy  Father 
laid  down  the  programme  of  the  future  Council  so  broadly  and 
in  such  grand  terms,  there  is  again  no  mention  made  of  his  per- 
sonal infallibility. 

No ;  nowhere,  in  none  of  the  acts  of  the  Holy  Father,  does 
there  appear,  for  a  single  instant,  this  anxiety  to  aggrandize  his 
authority  by  means  of  the  Council  and  under  favor  of  that  re- 
spect which  the  world  pays  to  his  virtues  and  his  misfortunes. 

You  know.  Gentlemen,  that  the  Vicar  of  Jesus  Christ  assigns 
other  and  grand  objects  for  the  assembly  of  the  representatives 
of  the  Catholic  Church. 

"  To  cure  the  evils  of  the  present  century  in  the  Church  and 
in  society,"  that  is  the  purpose  for  which  the  Pope  has  convened 
the  Council ;  and  therein,  of  a  truth,  what  questions  are  con- 
tained that  have  been  raised  by  modern  times  and  by  the  pres- 
ent crisis !  It  is  everywhere  anxiously  asked  whether,  in  such 
an  uncertain  era — when  from  one  moment  to  another  events  may 
start  up  to  dissolve  the  Council  before  it  can  finish  its  task — the 
bishops  will  even  have  time  to  consider  them. 

And  it  is  in  the  midst  of  such  pressing  and  necessaiy  ques- 
tions that  people  wish  to  start  a  new,  unforeseen,  unexpected 
question,  of  unmistakable  difficulty,  and  charged  with  tempests ! 
and  to  run  the  risk — in  the  path  laid  down  by  the  newspapers — 
of  showing  the  world,  instead  of  that  grand  Spectacle  of  unity 
which  it  is  expecting  of  us,  a  totally  difflerent  one ! 

Alas  !  we  can  foresee  already,  by  the  bitterness  of  these  prelim- 
inary debates,  what  discussions  this  question — if  carried  there- 
might  give  rise  to  in  the  Council ! 

But  why  carry  it  thither  ?  Is  there  any  constraining  necessity  ? 
Do  the  perils  of  the  times  demand  it  ? 

Not  at  all !  But  I  hear  it  said,  we  have  to  do  here  with  a 
principle. 

A  principle  ?    Well !  I  reply  in  turn,  this  principle,  if  it  is  one, 


APPENDIX.  301 

is  it  then  necessary  to  the  life  of  the  Church  that  it  should  become 
a  dogma  of  faith  ?  How,  then,  do  you  explain  it  that  the  Church 
has  lived  for  eighteen  centuries  without  defining  this  doctrine 
essential  to  its  life  ?  How  do  you  explain  it,  that  the  Church  has 
formulated  its  body  of  doctrine,  produced  all  its  doctors,  con- 
demned every  heresy,  without  this  definition?  Evidently,  there 
is  no  necessity  here,  and  the  solution  of  this  question  is  no  more 
indispensable  than  it  was  called  for. 

The  reason,  moreover,  is  simple.  The  Church  is  infallible,  and 
the  infallibility  of  the  Church  has  answered  every  purpose  until 
now.  Do  you  fear  lest,  in  future,  it  should  become  insufficient  ? 
and  do  you  flatter  yourselves  that  those  who  are  unwilling  to 
believe  in  the  infallibility  of  the  Church  united  with  the  Pope 
will  be  more  ready  to  believe  in  the  personal  and  separate  infalli- 
bility of  the  Pope  ? 

Is  there  in  the  Catholic  Church  any  misgiving  as  to  the  infalli- 
bility of  the  Church?  Are  not  all  agreed  on  this  point?  Does 
not  the  least  of  the  faithful  know  that  he  is  in  communion  with 
his  pastor,  who  is  in  communion  with  his  bishop,  who  is  in  com- 
munion Mith  the  Pope  ?  Does  not  that  suffice  abundantly  for  the 
security  of  our  faith  ?  And  have  not  the  faithful,  in  this  marvel- 
lous harmony  of  evidence,  a  sure  guarantee  against  error  ? 

Do  3'ou  fear  lest  the  Church  be  no  longer  able  to  live  in  the 
future  upon  the  same  foundations  that  have  supported  it  during 
a  past  of  eighteen  centuries  ? 

"Why,  then,  do  you  speak  of  the  necessity  of  making  in  the 
Council  a  new  definition  concerning  the  rule  of  faith,  and  estab- 
lishing dogmatically  a  new  rule  of  faitli  ?  What !  Is  it  in  our 
centuiy  that  the  necessity  has  arisen  of  putting  this  in  question, 
of  meddling  with  this  fundamental  principle,  this  mainspring  of 
the  Church's  life  ?  Have  we  been  constituted  for  so  many  cen- 
turies, then,  in  a  defective  and  incomplete  manner  ? 

After  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy  years  of  teaching,  must  we 
ask  ourselves,  in  Council,  who  has  the  right  to  teach  infallibly  ? 
And  that  in  the  face  of  the  unbelieving  and  Protestant  world 
that  is  vfatching  us  !    No ;  let  us  drop  these  questions,  for  which 


302  APPENDIX. 

there  is  no  call.  Let  not  these  foolharclj  editors  go  on  prema- 
turely to  stun  and  bewilder  the  good  sense  of  the  faithful  by  vio- 
lent controversies,  that  have  the  semblance  of  wishing  to  force 
these  questions  beforehand  upon  the  bishops.  As  for  myself, 
Gentlemen,  my  opinion,  with  deference  to  my  venerated  col- 
leagues, is  fixed  on  this  point.  When  the  oak  counts  twenty 
centuries  over  its  head,  to  dig  down  under  its  roots  in  quest  of 
the  original  acorn  is  to  unsettle  the  entire  tree ! 

III.  But  are  there  not.  Gentlemen,  decisive  precedents  for  this 
question  of  opportuneness  that  engages  our  attention  ?  I  shall 
first  recall  to  mind  the  wise  conduct  of  the  Council  of  Trent  and 
Pope  Pius  IV. 

In  the  times  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  the  question  that  agitated 
the  public  so  intensely,  and  Vv' as  even  on  the  point  of  causing  the 
dissolution  of  the  Council,  was,  in  substance,  though  in  another 
form — for  questions  never  present  themselves  twice  in  precisely 
the  same  form — the  very  one  that  w^e  are  handling  at  present. 

How  shall  we  forget  the  prudence  with  which  the  Holy  See 
warded  off  the  danger  of  those  controversies  by  putting  an  end  to 
the  debate  ? 

Pius  IV.,  seeing,  at  last,  how  excited  the  public  mind  was, 
wrote  to  his  legates,  ordering  them  to  withdraw  the  subject  from 
debate,  and  declared  that  nothing  must  be  discussed  that  could 
provoke  wrangling  or  dissension  among  the  bishops.  He  laid 
down  this  wise  rule,  that  nothing  should  be  decided  but  by  their 
unanimous  consent :  Ne  definirentur,  nisi  ea,  de  quibus  inter 
Patres  unanimi  consensione  constaret* 

The  Council  saw  that  it  had  something  else  to  do,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  errors  of  the  times,  besides  setting  up  as  dogmas 
opinions,  however  respectable  they  might  be,  that  were  the  sub- 
jects of  controversy  among  the  doctors,  something  better  than 
denouncing  Catholic  theologians.  And  the  discussion  was  laid 
aside,  without  detriment  to  the  Church. 

I  well  remember,  and  more  than  one  bishop  present  at  Rome 
in  1867  can  remember,  that  one  of  the  chief  cares  of  Pius  IX., 
*  See  Pallavicini,  Book  XIX.,  chap,  xv.,  and  elsewhere. 


APPENDIX.  303 

before  deciclinf^  upon  convening  the  Council  of  the  Vatican,  was 
lest  some  question  should  come  up  of  a  kind  to  provoke  wran- 
gling and  dissension  in  the  episcopate.  But  the  Pope  remem- 
bered the  prudent  conduct  of  the  Council  of  Trent  and  Pope 
Pius  IV.,  and,  hoping  that  it  would  not  be  forgotten  in  the  future 
CouDcil,  he  kept  on. 

Are  we  to  suppose  that,  for  starting  and  deciding  so  delicate 
a  matter  as  that  of  the  dogmatic  definition  already  announced, 
our  times  are  more  favorable  than  those  of  the  Council  of  Trent, 
and  that  we  live  in  an  age  of  livelier  faith  and  more  general  sub- 
mission to  the  Church  ? 

Another  precedent  of  wisdom  and  moderation  must  be  recalled 
here — the  conduct  of  Pope  Innocent  XL  toward  Bossuet.  When 
Bossuet  wrote  his  Exposition  of  Catliolic  Doctrine,  after  having 
firmly  established,  in  the  matter  of  the  authority  of  the  Holy  See, 
the  primacy  of  divine  right,  the  primacy  of  honor  and  jurisdic- 
tion of  Saint  Peter  and  the  Popes,  his  successors,  he  expressly 
and  purposely  passed  over,  in  silence,  the  question  of  papal  in- 
fallibility. 

"  Concerning  those  things  which,  it  is  known,  are  disputed  in 
the  schools,  although  the  [Protestant]  ministers  do  not  cease  al- 
leging them  in  order  to  render  that  poicer  odious,  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  speak  of  them  here,  since  they  are  not  a  part  of  the  Gatho- 
licfaitliP 

Did  this  deliberate  and  intentional  silence  upon  the  subject  of 
papal  infallibility  prevent  Innocent  XI.  from  approving  the 
work  ?  Far  from  it ;  for  that  holy  Pope  addressed  to  Bossuet 
two  briefs,  in  which  lie  congratulated  him  on  having  written  the 
hook  in  a  manner  and  loith  a  wisdom  eminently  adapted  for  recall- 
ing lieretics  to  tlie  way  of  salvation,  and  procuring  the  Church  the 
greatest  facilities  for  the  propagation  of  the  orthodox  faith. 

Bossuet,  moreover,  in  carefully  avoiding,  in  the  wisely-expressed 
spirit  of  Innocent  XL,  the  point  in  controversy,  has  only  imitated 
the  Catechism  of  the  Council  of  Trent.  I  have  read  and  re-read 
this  grand  Catechism,  composed  by  order  of  the  holy  Council 
and  the  Sovereign  Pontiffs,  by  the  most  celebrated  Roman  theo- 


304  APPENDIX. 

logians  ;  I  have  read  it  with  the  express  purpose  of  finding  out 
whether  it  had  anything  to  say  either  for  or  against  the  infalli- 
biUty  of  the  Pope,  and  I  have  ascertained  that  it  does  not  say  a 
single  word  about  it.  Neither  is  the  subject  included  in  the  sol- 
emn profession  of  fiith  prepared  by  order  of  Pius  IV.,  and  in- 
serted in  the  Roman  pontifical. 

Finally,  why  should  we  not  cite  in  this  place  the  example  of 
the  venerated  Pius  IX.  himself?  We  know  that  two  years  ago, 
in  1867,  one  hundred  and  eighty-eight  Anglican  ministers  wrote 
to  him  expressing  their  willingness,  and  inquiring  of  him  the 
possible  terms  of  union.  What  did  the  Holy  Father  do  ?  In  an 
answer  full  of  charity  and  wisdom,  he  spoke  of  the  authority  of 
the  Church,  he  spoke  of  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope  ;  but  he  did 
not  speak  of  his  infallibility. 

At  a  time,  then,  when  the  Holy  Father,  in  the  inspiration  of 
his  noble  and  peace-loving  heart,  sets  such  an  example  of  moder- 
^ation  and  wisdom,  do  journalists,  sheltering  themselves  behind 
the  venerated  name  that  they  desecrate  in  such  contests,  under- 
take, by  dint  of  sweeping  assertions,  to  bear  down  upon  public 
opinion,  while,  with  the  same  operation,  as  if  they  wished  to  in- 
timidate and  silence  the  bishops,  they  hold  suspended  over  their 
heads  insults  and  attacks  full  of  violence  and  gall. 

I  can  say  to  them  :  You  know  neither  Pius  IX.  nor  the  episco- 
pate. 

IV.  We  have  just  spoken  of  our  brethren  of  the  seceded  com- 
munions. Truly,  it  is  by  placing  ourselves  at  their  point  of  view 
that  the  question  of  defining  the  personal  infallibility  of  the  Pope 
becomes  especially  grave  and  dangerous. 

Think  of  it:  there  are  seventy-five  millions  of  detached 
Oriental  Christians ;  there  are  nearly  ninety  millions  of  Protest- 
ants of  difierent  shades  of  belief 

Assuredly,  if  the  Church  has  one  supreme  interest,  if  all  truly 
Catholic  hearts  have  one  ardent  wish,  it  is  the  return  of  so  many 
brethren  spiTing  from  the  same  mother,  but  to-day  estranged 
from  us.  That  is  the  great  cause,  for  which  we  should  all  be 
ready  to  give  our  blood,  and  should  tremble  at  the  bare  thought 


APPENDIX.  305 

of  auglit  that  might  put  it  in  jeopardy.  Hence  what  pressing 
invitations  from  the  Holy  Father  to  the  Oriental  Churches! 
What  an  appeal  to  the  Protestant  communions ! 

Well !  what  separates  the  Orientals  from  us  ?  The  supremacy 
of  the  Pope.  They  are  not  willing  to  recognize  it  as  of  divine 
right.  That  is  the  point  upon  which  it  has  never  been  possible, 
either  after  Lyons  or  Florence,  to  bring  them  to  an  earnest,  ef- 
fectual decision,  and  to  bring  about  a  permanent  return. 

And  now%  to  this  difficulty,  insurmountable  up  to  this  day,  which 
has  kept  them  for  nine  centuries  aloof  from  the  Church  and  from 
us,  it  is  proposed  to  add  a  new  and  much  greater  obstacle,  to 
raise  up  between  them  and  us  a  barrier  that  has  never  existed — 
in  a  word,  to  force  upon  them  a  new  dogma  that  has  never  been 
spoken  of  to  them,  and  threaten  them,  if  they  do  not  accept  it, 
with  a  fresh  anathema  ! 

For  it  is  not  merely  the  primacy  of  jurisdiction  that  they  will 
have  to  acknowledge,  but  the  personal  infallibility  of  the  Pope, 

"  WITHOUT  AND  INDEPENDENTLY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  BODY."* 

Could  there  be,  I  demand — and  here  I  merely  repeat  w^hat  good 
sense  has  suggested  already  to  every  one  who  has  been  willing  to 
consider  the  matter — could  there  be,  toward  the  separated 
Oriental  churches,  anything  more  contradictory  than  such  con- 
duct, less  persuasive  than  such  language?  "We  invite  you  to 
profit  by  the  great  occasion  of  the  (Ecumenical  Council,  to  come 
to  an  explanation  and  understanding  with  us.  But  take  notice, 
in  advance,  w^hat  we  are  going  to  do — build  up  a  new  wall  of 
separation,  a  new  and  higlier  barrier  between  you  and  us.  Now, 
a  moat  separates  us  ;  we  are  going  to  make  it  a  great  gulf  You 
have  j-efused  hitherto  to  recognize  the  simple  primacy  of  the 
Roman  pontiff;  we  are  going  to  force  you  to  believe,  as  the  first 
step,  something  very  different,  and  to  admit  what,  up  to  this  time, 
some  of  our  Catholic  doctors  themselves  have  not  admitted  ;  we 
are  going  to  set  up  as  a  dogma  a  doctrine  much  more  obscure  for 
you,  in  Scripture  and  in  Tradition,  than  the  dogma  w^hich  you 
have  already  rejected— to  wit,  the  personal  infallibility  of  the 

*  Archbishop  Manning. 


306  APPENDIX. 

Pope,  alone,  *  independent  of  and  apart  from  the  bishop^.''    Those 
are  the  conditions  under  which  we  offer  to  treat  with  j'^ou." 

Would  not  such  speech  be  a  mockery  ?  Would  it  not  also  be 
a  misfortune  ?    Inviting  and  repelling  at  the  same  time ! 

These  considerations  must  be  still  more  striking  if  we  reflect 
upon  the  intellectual  attitude  of  the  schismatic  Christians  of  the 
East.  When  we  treat  with  men  we  must  really  know  how  they 
stand.  Now,  upon  this  point,  what  is  the  position  of  our  estranged 
brethren  ? 

They  have  remained  precisely  where  they  were  in  the  time  of 
the  schism,  that  is,  in  the  ninth  century.  They  have  not  gone  • 
forward  one  step  since  then.  They  have  no  loiowledge  of  the 
controversies  that  have  been  raised  upon  this  subject  in  the  West- 
ern Church.  They  have  not  read  Bossuet,  nor  Bellarmin,  nor 
Melchior  Cano.  And  whatever  personal  conviction  we  may  have 
as  to  the  infallibility  of  the  Roman  pontiff,  we  must  admit  that 
the  ninth  century  w^as  far  from  ready  for  the  definition  of  such  a 
dogma.  In  fact,  up  to  that  time,  the  Councils  were  the  great 
manifestation  of  Church  life  ;  they  were  continually  meeting  ;  all 
the  great  dogmatic  definitions  had  been  made  in  Council.  The 
Greeks,  then,  are  in  no  respect  prepared  for  the  definition  that 
people  would  have  forced  upon  them  by  the  Council  of  the  Vati- . 
can.  It  is  my  profound  conviction,  that  one  of  the  certain,  inevi- 
table results  of  such  a  definition  would  be  to  postpone  to  the  distant 
future  the  reunion  of  the  Oriental  Churches.  Such  a  consideration 
will  not  seem  trifling  to  any  one  who  knows  the  value  of  souls. 

A  recent  circumstance  will  show  whether  the  fear  that  we  ex- 
press here  is  without  foundation :  it  is  the  response  given  to  the 
envoy  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff  by  the  Vicar  General  of  the 
schismatic  Patriarch  of  Constantinople.  Among  the  reasons  as- 
signed by  him  for  declining  the  invitation  sent  from  Rome, 
occurs  this  one :  "  That  the  Greek  Church  cannot  recognize  the 
infallibility  of  the  Pope,  and  his  superiority  over  (Ecumenical 
Councils."* 

*  The  Civiltd  Cattolica,  "  Chronicle  of  the  Council."  Quoted  by  the  Bishop 
of  Grenoble. 


APPENDIX.  307 

The  Armenian  schismatics  use  the  same  language,  and  I  have 
had  before  my  eyes  an  Armenian  journal,  which  pretends  that  if 
Rome  invites  them  to  the  Council,  it  is  "  to  force  upon  them  the 
infallibility  of  the  Pope." 

Perhaps  it  will  be  said :  "Why,  what  are  you  so  anxious  about  ? 
The  schismatics  do  not  desire  any  reunion.  What  matters  an 
additional  barrier  between  them  and  us  ?  For  my  part,  I  am  far 
from  thus  losing  hope,  and,  though  ignorant  of  God's  designs  for 
the  nations,  I  do  not  believe  that  I  have  any  right  thus  to  seal  the 
tomb  of  these  ancient  Christian  nations,  especially  when  I  con- 
sider that  in  this  tomb,  beneath  this  Oriental  soil,  are  reposing 
such  ashes  as  those  of  Athanasius,  Cj^ril,  Gregory,  Chrysostom, 
mingled  with  those  of  Paul,  Anthony,  Hilarion,  Pachomius,  and 
so  many  other  saints  illustrious  forever. 

Even  were  it  so  to  be,  even  were  neither  the  breath  of  God 
nor  any  human  effort  destined  to  recall  these  ancient  people  of 
the  East  from  the  error  in  which  they  are  lost,  even  then  I  could 
not  believe  that  it  was  in  accordance  with  the  charity  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  the  mission  of  a  great  Council,  to  alienate  them  still 
farther,  and  render  their  return  more  difficult. 

I  have  often  had  the  good  fortune  to  confer  at  length  upon  the 
welfare  of  these  ancient  Churches  with  the  Eastern  bishops 
whom  I  have  chanced  to  meet  at  Rome,  in  our  great  gatherings ; 
and,  besides,  an  active  private  correspondence  with  several  of 
them  has  enabled  me  to  become  somewhat  acquainted  with  the 
state  of  affairs. 

What  1  have  learned  from  them  is  this :  That  there  is  a  great 
desire  for  reconciliation.  Yes ;  in  this  dull,  lethargic  East  there 
are  many  souls  aroused  by  these  aspirations.  And  at  the  same 
time  they  are  keenly  sensitive  for  the  slightest  details  of  their 
ancient  customs :  how  much  moi-e  so,  then,  for  anything  that  en- 
ters into  the  great  dogmatic  questions  ! 

Assuredly,  the  Council  of  Trent  pursued  a  very  different 
course,  and  showed  a  considerateness  toward  the  Oriental 
Churches  far  more  worthy  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  and 
that  too  in  a  question  of  vital  importance.    Eveiy  theologian 


308  APPENDIX. 

knows  how,  at  the  request  of  the  Venetian  ambassadors,  the 
famous  canon  beginning,  Si  quis  dixerii  Ecdesiam  errare,  a 
masterpiece  of  charity  and  theological  prudence,  was  moderated 
so  as  to  uphold  the  truth,  and  at  the  same  time  to  spare  the 
Oriental  Christians. 

V.  The  question  is  still  more  delicate  in  its  bearings  upon 
Protestantism.  For  the  Eastern  schism  admits  at  least  the  au- 
thority of  the  Oecumenical  Councils — those  that  it  regards  as 
such — and  the  authority  of  the  Church,  of  which  it  is  persuaded 
that  it  forms  a  part,  whereas  Protestantism  does  not  admit  this 
authority.  Upon  this  precise  and  decisive  point — the  authority 
of  the  Church — turns  the  great  controversy  between  them  and 
us.  Protestantism  is,  more  than  anything  else,  the  negation  of 
the  authority  of  the  Church.  In  this  principle  of  division  con- 
sists its  essence,  its  deadly  plague.  And  this,  many  of  our  alien- 
ated brethren  are  beginning  to  get  a  notion  of.  They  feel  that  a 
principle  which  allows  of  division  to  infinity,  which  admits  that 
one  may  continue  to  be  a  Protestant  after  he  has  ceased  to  be  a 
Christian,  cannot  be  the  true  Christian  principle.  Hence  this 
labor  in  the  womb  of  Protestantism,  these  grand  and  cheering 
conversions,  of  which  especially  England  and  America  afford  us 
the  spectacle,  and  these  longings  after  union  which  exist,  I  know, 
in  the  heart  of  so  many  Protestants. 

Which  one  among  us  does  not  sympathize  with  this  labor 
and  these  sufferings  of  so  many  souls?  Who  does  not  invite 
them  lovingly  ?  Who  does  not  pray  with  them  ?  For  they  are 
praying — I  know  it  myself— for  this  great,  supreme  interest,  the 
union  of  the  Christian  Churches.  "  There  are,"  said  no  less  a 
one  than  Dr.  Pusey,  to  me,  at  Orleans,  two  years  ago,  "  there  are 
eight  thousand  of  us  in  England,  that  pray  every  day  for  union." 

Ah !  If  this  reconciliation  so  much  desired  could  at  last  be 
brought  about !  If  England,  above  all,  great  England,  might 
some  day  come  back  to  us  !  Of  all  the  reconciliations  that  the 
world  has  seen,  this,  assuredlj'',  would  be  the  happiest  and  yield 
the  richest  fruits.  I  said  in  my  book  upon  the  Papal  Sovereignty, 
which  was  written,  as  I  might  say,  under  the  fire  of  the  struggles 


APPENDIX.  309 

for  the  Holy  See,  I  said  confidently  to  such  of  the  English  as  are 
masters  of  themselves  and  their  prejudices  :  You  have  been,  for 
three  centuries,  the  most  formidable  enemies  of  unity :  what  an 
honor  it  would  be  for  you  to  restore  unity  in  Europe !  How  be- 
fitting it  would  be  for  your  hands  to  upraise  the  standard  of 
Christian  Catholicity — for  your  vessels  to  bear  it  over  the  seas  to 
all  the  countrioii  that  j^ou  visit !  Happy  they  to  whom  it  shall  be 
given  to  see  those  better  times,  perhaps  not  far  distant ! 

Well !  the  Council  has  revived  these  hopes  among  a  great 
number  of  our  alienated  brethren  and  among  ourselves.  Ah ! 
no  doubt  we  must  fear  that  they  will  not  all  be  realized.  But 
partial  conversions,  at  least,  may  be  witnessed,  and  in  great 
numbers ;  above  all,  a  powerful  impulse  may  be  given.  Time, 
with  the  grace  of  God,  would  accomplish  the  rest. 

May  the  Council  at  least,  for  those  to  whom  the  Holy  Father 
but  recently  addressed  that  pressing  appeal,  not  prove  the  hardest 
stumbling-block ! 

No  longer  talk,  then,  of  first  enjoining  upon  them,  as  the  con- 
dition of  their  return,  the  personal  and  separate  infallibility  of 
the  Pope  !  For  this  would  be  to  forget  all  prudence,  as  well  as 
all  charity. 

The  new  Catholics,  I  have  heard  said,  are  full  of  fervor  for  this 
dogma.  Yes;  certain  new  Catholics,  perhaps.  But  I  myself 
know  other  converts,  who  have  been  troubled  by  the  announce- 
ment of  a  definition.  I  know  certain  Protestanjs,  desirous  of 
coming  to  us,  whom  this  alone  deters.  I  know  some,  whom  this 
definition  would  absolutely  repel. 

It  seems  to  me  that  one  must  be  very  little  or  veiy  poorly 
informed  as  to  the  present  disposition  of  our  alienated  brethren, 
not  to  see  that  thereby  we  should  inevitably  raise  up  a  fresh  bar- 
rier— an  ever-insuperable  one,  perhaps — between  them  and  us. 

Wait,  then !  I  would  say  to  the  impatient :  schisms  and  heresies 
do  not  last  forever.  The  Church  has  waited  comfortably  for 
eighteen  centuries  without  this  definition,  and  the  truth,  kept  by 
her,  has  been  well  kept. 

VI.   There  are  still  other  perils,  of  another  sort,  which  are  also 


310  APPENDIX. 

very  grave.  We  must  take  into  account  the  consequences  that 
such  an  act  might  have  from  the  point  of  view  of  modern  govern- 
ments; there  is  an  expediency  in  this,  or  rather  a  wisdom,  from 
which  the  Church  may  not  depart.  I  know  that  many  of  the 
bisliops,  even  the  most  courageous,  are  anxious  on  this  point. 

And  truly,  not  without  cause ;  for  there  are  serious  reasons  for 
fearing,  even  from  this  point  of  view,  that  the  possible  disadvan- 
tages of  the  definition  of  infallibility  may  be  very  great. 

Let  us  look  at  the  facts  ;  let  us  examine  the  true  condition  of 
Europe. 

Out  of  the  five  great  European  powers,  three  are  not  Catholic — 
Russia,  Prussia,  and  England.  I  do  not  speak  here  of  America 
and  the  United  States.  And  among  the  second-rate  states  of  Eu- 
rope, a  large  number,  again,  are  in  heresy  and  schism — Saxony, 
Sweden,  Denmark,  Switzerland,  Holland,  Greece.  Who  is  igno- 
rant of  the  grudges  that  all  these  governments  still  cherish 
against  the  Church?  Now  I  merely  put  the  following  grave 
question  :  Do  you  believe  that  defining  the  personal  infallibility 
of  the  Pope  is  calculated  to  remove  these  grudges  ?  When,  by 
reason  of  an  inveterate  prejudice,  that  is  not  to  be  destroyed  by 
aggravating  it,  these  governments  regard  the  Pope  as  a  foreign 
sovereign,  do  you  think,  in  good  earnest,  that  declaring  the  Pope 
infallible  is  going  to  ameliorate  the  position  of  Catholics  in  all 
these  countries  ?  Is  it  to  be  believed  that  Russia,  Sweden,  Den- 
mark, will  become  milder  toward  their  Catholic  subjects'?  Will 
their  hatred  of  Rome  be  appeased,  and  their  reconciliation  made 
easier  ? 

If  any  one  is  tempted  to  treat  lightly,  as  mere  chimeras,  these 
apprehensions  as  to  the  disposition  of  non-Catholic  governments, 
I  shall  merely  recite  in  this  place  facts  of  our  own  age.  Why, 
then,  were  the  Catholic  archbishops  and  bishops  of  Ireland,  and 
those  of  England  and  Scotland,  obliged,  in  1826,  to  sign  the  two 
declarations  that  I  now  have  before  me  ? 

In  one  of  them,  the  Catholic  archbishops  and  bishops  of  Eng- 
land and  Scotland,  confronted  with  this  charge — The  Catholics 
are  accused  of  dividing  their  allegiance  between  their  temporal 


APPENDIX.  •  311 

sovereign  and  the  Pope — reply  to  it  at  length.  In  the  other,  the 
Catholic  archbishops  and  bishops  of  Ireland  are  forced  to  go  to 
the  length  of  protesting  that  they  do  not  believe  "  that  it  is  law- 
ful to  kill  any  person  whatever,  under  pretext  of  his  being  a 
heretic" — an  exaggerated,  yet  palpable  and  permanent  reminis- 
cence of  the  bulls  launched  against  Henry  VIII. ;  and  further- 
more— be  this  especially  noted — "  that  they  are  not  required  to 
believe  that  the  Pope  is  infallible." 

Ciy  out  as  much  as  you  like  against  the  injustice  of  this  mis- 
trust and  these  imputations — such  solemn  declarations  forced 
upon  the  episcopate  of  a  great  country  are  a  sufficient  proof  of 
their  power.  I  have  read  that  declaration  of  the  Irish  bishops, 
I  must  confess,  with  a  flushed  face.  What  must  they  not  have 
suffered  in  having  to  repel,  even  in  finding  still  alive  in  their 
country,  such  suspicions,  impugning  everything  most  sacred  in 
conscience,  everything  most  delicate  in  honor  ! 

Do  you  wish  for  other  proofs  ?  You  know  the  atrocious  laws 
which  were  so  long  suspended  over  the  heads  of  the  Catholics  of 
England  and  Ireland,  and  which  it  has  been  so  hard  to  abolish. 
Well,  when  the  famous  Pitt,  at  the  close  of  the  last  century,  as 
an  act  of  policy  that  I  am  willing  to  believe  was  one  of  generosity 
also,  thought  for  the  first  time  of  delivering  the  Catholics  from 
this  yoke,  what  troubled  or  abruptly  checked  the  English  states- 
man ?  The  papal  power,  old  memories  of  the  quarrels  be- 
tween the  popes  and  the  crowned  heads.  Therefore  it  was 
that  he  wished  to  know,  above  all,  what  were  the  Catholic 
teachings  upon  this  point,  and,  with  this  object,  he  applied  to 
the  most  learned  universities  of  France,  Belgium,  Spain,  and 
Germany. 

I  have  before  me  the  responses  of  the  universities  of  Paris, 
Douay,  Louvain,  Alcala,  Salamanca,  Valladolid.  Looking  at  the 
question  as  a  question  of  divine  law,  and  consequently  passing 
over  what  may  have  been  the  international  law  of  another  age, 
they  all  reply  in  so  many  words,  that  neither  the  Pope,  nor  the 
cardinals,  nor  any  body  nor  individual  in  the  Romish  Church, 
have  any  civil  authority  from  Jesus  Christ  over  England,  any 


312  APPENDIX. 

power  to  release  the  subjects  of  His  Britannic  Majesty  from  their 
oath  of  allegiance. 

This  doctrine,  then  professed  by  the  greatest  universities  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  might  suffice  to  relieve  Pitt's  apprehensions  as 
to  the  opposite  doctrine,  which,  we  are  forced  to  admit,  is  pro- 
fessed in  famous  bulls  by  more  than  one  Pope.  But  suppose  the 
Pope  is  declared  infallible  ;  will  not  this  dogmatic  definition  of 
the  Pope's  infallibility  be  apt  to  revive  former  mistrust  ?  Cer- 
tainly it  is  to  be  dreaded,  and  for  the  following  reason. 

The  non-Catholic  governments,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  are  not 
going  to  believe  in  this  infallibility ;  and  this  immense  power 
having  been  conceded  to  the  Pope  as  a  matter  of  dogma,  the 
Pope,  in  their  judgment,  may  abuse  it  or  exceed  its  limits.  But — 
a  weighty  matter  in  their  view — their  Catholic  subjects  will  be- 
lieve in  it,  and  will  be  obliged  to  submit  to  all  its  decisions,  even 
those  that  are,  in  the  opinion  of  these  governments,  the  most  in- 
jurious. How,  then,  can  we  fail  to  see  that  from  that  moment 
the  papal  power  will  appear  to  them  far  more  formidable  and 
odious  ?  They  already  have,  they  still  cherish  this  sullen  mis- 
trust of  the  Church  with  which  every  one  is  familiar ;  how  much 
n;fore  will  they  suspect  the  infallible  Pope,  a  single  man,  who,  in 
their  view,  will  afford  them  far  less  guaranty  than  the  Church, 
that  is  to  say,  the  bishops  of  their  country  and  all  countries ! 

VII.  And  the  governments  of  the  Catholic  nations  themselves, 
how  will  they  look  upon  the  proclamation  of  the  new  dogma  ? 
"We  must  ask  ourselves  this  also.  For,  after  all,  the  governments 
will  not  consider  themselves  as  having  no  interest  in  the  ques- 
tion.    Who  will  persuade  them  that  it  does  not  concern  tliem  ? 

Here  again,  in  order  to  estimate  calmly  and  accurately  the 
consequences  of  the  dogmatic  definition  announced  and  demanded 
so  clamorously  by  journalists — verily,  it  is  high  time  that  they 
should  desist  from  meddling  in  the  most  private,  grave,  exclusive 
afi'airs  of  the  Church — let  us  come  down  to  the  reality  of  things, 
to  facts  ;  let  us  see  what  is,  and  what  will  be. 

The  great  fact,  deplorable  yet  incontrovertible,  and  never  so 
settled  a  fact  as  it  is  to-day,  is  this  :    the  governments,  even  of 


APPENDIX.  313 

Catholic  countries,  are  full  of  ill-feeling  toward  the  Church.  All 
history  proclaims  this  ;  for  history  is  full  of  the  conflicts  between 
the  two  powers. 

But  why  speak  of  the  past?  In  the  very  hour  that  I  write 
these  lines,  are  not  three  of  the  four  great  Catholic  powers  of 
Europe — Austria,  Italy,  and  Spain — more  or  less  involved  in  de- 
plorable contests  with  the  Church  ?  And  even  among  ourselves, 
may  not  difficulty  spring  up  at  any  moment  ?  And  would  not 
even  this  word  be  too  mild  for  the  terrible  eventualities  of  such 
a  possible  revolution  ? 

That  is  the  situation  ;  the  Catholic  governments  have  been, 
are,  or  are  liable  to  be  involved  more  and  more  in  conflict  with 
the  Church. 

Assuredly,  no  one  deplores  more  than  I  do  these  formidable 
conflicts,  when  they  arrive  ;  and,  however  little  relish  I  may 
have  for  such  contests,  perhaps  I  have  already  shown — you  will 
pardon  my  alluding  to  it — that  I  am  not  one  of  those  who  shrink 
back  from  them  and  grow  faint !  But  that  is  not  the  question ; 
and  whether  the  governments  are  to  blame,  or  not  to  blame,  that 
is  not  the  question  either.  The  question  is,  how  will  the  govern- 
ments, to-day,  regard  the  declaration  of  papal  infallibility  ? 

Is  this  a  timorous  anxiety  ?  Ought  the  Church,  in  its  Coun- 
cils, consulting  only  the  principles  of  its  complete  independence, 
so  far  as  human  governments  are  concerned,  to  act,  decree,  de- 
fine, even  in  the  most  delicate  practical  questions,  as  though  the 
governments  did  not  exist,  and  without  having  the  least  care  as  to 
whether  its  actions  would  or  would  not  wound  them  to  the  quick  ? 

Such  is  not,  such  never  was,  in  matters  not  of  necessity,  the 
custom  of  the  Holy  Church. 

Ah !  if,  at  one  stroke,  by  a  simple  dogmatic  proclamation,  we 
could  cut  short  conflicts,  efl'ace  inveterate  mistrust,  and,  by  a 
mere  decree,  render  the  governments  of  the  Catholic  nations 
obedient  to  the  Church  and  the  Pcpe,  like  sheep,  that  would  be 
worth  the  while ! 

But  to  flatter  one's  self  with  such  an  idea,  especially  at  the 
present  day,  would  be  the  most  chimerical  of  illusions, 

U 


314  APPENDIX. 

Can  any  one  doubt  that  a  dogmatic  definition  of  the  personal 
infallibility  of  the  Pope,  far  from  suppressing  old  mistrust,  would 
only  revive  the  causes,  or,  if  you  will,  the  eternal  pretexts  of  it, 
by  giving  them  additional  plausibility  ? 

In  fact,  what  are  these  pretexts?  Assuredly,  I  make  no  pre- 
tence here  of  justifying  the  governments ;  always  and  everywhere 
almost  they  have  wanted  to  oppress  the  Church.  But  we  must 
look  at  men  and  things  as  they  are. 

In  the  first  place,  there  are  the  memories  of  the  past. 

By  declaring  the  Pope  infallible,  the  sovereigns  may  ask,  do 
you  declare  him  impeccable  ?  No.  The  sough t-for  declaration 
not  being  at  liberty  to  add  to  or  take  away  from  what  is,  and 
what  has  been,  that  which  has  been  witnessed  once  may  be  wit- 
nessed again.  Now,  we  have  seen,  it  must  be  said  respectfully 
and  sadly,  but  it  must  be  said — for  history  constrains  us,  and 
Baronius  himself,  the  great  historiographer  of  the  Roman  Church, 
teaches  us  that  in  matters  of  history  we  must  not  garble  the 
truth* — we  have  seen,  in  that  long  and  incomparable  series  of 
Roman  pontiffs,  some  Popes,  a  small  number  it  is  true,  but  still  a 
certain  number  of  Popes,  who  have  shown  themselves  weak,  or 
ambitious,  or  grasping — Popes  that  have  confounded  spiritual 
things  with  temporal,  pi'etenders  to  dominion  over  crowned 
heads.  There  is  no  certainty  that  in  all  the  ages  to  come  we 
shall  have  a  Pius  IX.  on  the  Papal  throne. 

Is  it  not  natural  to  suppose,  if  the  Pope  is  proclaimed  infallible, 
that  these  reflections  will  suggest  themselves,  of  their  own  ac- 
cord, to  the  existing  governments  ?  And  is  it  not  useless — I  will 
add,  is  it  not  very  dangerous,  even  to  revive  such  memories  ? 
Assuredly,  I  am  not  the  one  that  is  reviving  them  !  But  why  do 
imprudent  advocateg  of  the  Papacy  take  upon  themselves  every 
day  the  pitiful  mission  of  reviving  and  embittering  them? 

Moreover,  people  will  ask  upon  what  objects  this  personal  in- 
fallibility is  to  be  exercised.  If  it  is  to  be  only  on  mixed  mat- 
ters, in  which  the  conflicts  have  ever  been  frequent,  what  are  the 

*  We  need  only  read  in  his  Annals,  the  history  of  the  tenth  century,  to  be 
eatisfled  that  he  doe?  no  rr'ii'hlini?  himself. 


APPENDIX.  315 

limits  of  these  ?  Wlio  is  to  determine  tliem  ?  Does  not  the 
spiritual  come  in  contact  with  the  temporal  on  every  side  ?  Who 
will  persuade  the  governments  that  the  Pope  will  never,  in  any 
moment  of  excitement,  pass  over  fi-om  the  spiritual  to  the  tem- 
poral ?  Will  not  the  proclamation  of  the  new  dogma  seem — not 
to  skilled  theologians,  but  to  governments  that  are  not  theolo- 
gians— to  establish  in  the  Pope,  in  matters  scarcely  defined,  and 
often  scarcely  definable,  an  unlimited,  sovereign  power  over  all 
their  Catholic  subjects,  a  power  all  the  more  subject  to  mistrust 
on  the  part  of  the  governments,  because  it  will  seem  to  them 
constantly  liable  to  abuse  ? 

And  then,  people  will  begin  to  think  of  the  doctrines  formu- 
lated, if  not  defined,  in  many  celebrated  Bulls. 

Assuredly,  I  have  not  the  least  desire  to  defend,  in  this  place, 
Philip  the  Fair  and  his  imitators.  But,  after  all,  in  the  Bull 
Unam  sanctam,  for  instance,  does  not  Boniface  VIII.  declare 
that  there  are  two  swords,  the  spiritual  and  the  temporal ;  that 
the  second,  as  well  as  the  first,  belongs  to  Saint  Peter,  and  that 
the  successor  of  Peter  has  the  right  to  appoint  and  to  judge 
kings :  Potestas  spiritualis  terrenam  'potei^tatem  insUtuere  habet  et 
judicare  ? 

And  in  the  Bull  Ausculta  fili,  he  requests  the  king  to  send  to 
Rome  the  archbishops  and  bishops  of  France,  together  with  the 
abbots,  &c.,  to  treat  there  of  all  that  might  seem  useful  for  tJie  good 
government  of  the  kingdom  of  France. 

And  even  after  Protestantism  had  arisen  to  change  so  radically 
the  condition  of  Europe,  did  not  Paul  III.,  in  the  famous  Bull 
that  excommunicated  Henry  VIII.,  absolve  from  their  oath  of 
allegiance  all  the  subjects  of  the  king  of  England,  and  ofier 
England  to  whoever  should  conquer  it,  promising  to  the  conquer- 
ors all  the  property,  real  and  personal,  of  the  Protestant 
English? 

Do  you  suppose  they  have  forgotten  that  Bull  in  England  ? 
The  declarations,  of  which  I  cited  a  few  words  to  you  just  now, 
do  you  think  that  they  were  not  demanded  of  the  Catholic 
bishops  of  Ireland  because  of  the  still  lively  remembrance  of  that 


316  APPENDIX. 

Bull  ?  Shall  I  be  permitted  to  speak  out  my  whole  mind  on  this 
point,  and  ask,  in  accordance  with  history :  Was  not  that  terrible 
Bull,  at  the  period  in  which  it  was  published,  calculated  to  drive 
off  rather  than  to  recall  the  English  nation?  Is  it  altogether 
certain  that  it  was  not  a  great  misfortune  for  Christendom  ?  In 
any  case,  I  should  not,  by  so  thinking,  contradict  any  Catholic 
dogma,  not  even  that  of  Papal  infallibility,  if  it  should  ever  be 
erected  into  a  dogma. 

I  am  sad — and  who  would  not  be  ? — in  calling  to  mind  these 
great  and  painful  facts  of  history ;  but  they  force  us  to  it,  these 
persons  whose  foolhardy  flippancy  is  stirring  up  such  burning 
questions.  They  force  us  to  it,  and  it  is  my  profound  conviction 
that  all  this  plunges  the  best  minds  into  deplorable  agitation,  and 
that,  had  people  undertaken  to  render  the  Papal  power  odious, 
the}'"  could  not  do  a  better  thing  than  to  perpetuate  such  contro- 
versies. 

For,  after  all,  will  not  sovereigns,  even  Catholic  sovereigns,  ask 
themselves :  Will  the  dogmatic  proclamation  of  Papal  infallibil- 
ity, or  will  it  not,  render  such  Bulls  impossible  in  the  future  ? 
What,  then,  is  to  prevent  a  new  Pope  from  announcing  that  as  a 
definition  which  has  been  taught  by  several  of  his  predecessors, 
that  the  Yicar  of  Jesus  Christ  has  a  direct  power  over  the  tem- 
poral affairs  of  princes  ;  that  it  is  one  of  his  attributes  to  institute 
and  to  depose  sovereigns ;  that  the  civil  rights  of  kings  and  peo- 
ples are  subject  to  him? 

Then,  after  this  new  dogma  shall  have  been  proclaimed,  no 
priest,  no  bishop,  no  Catholic,  will  be  able  to  disavow  this  doc- 
trine, so  odious  to  governments  ;  that,  in  their  view,  all  civil  and 
political  rights,  as  well  as  all  religious  beliefs,  are  placed  in  the 
hands  of  a  single  man  ! 

And  perhaps  you  think  that  governments  would  look  on  with 
indifference  to  see  the  Church  gathering  together  from  all  quar- 
ters of  the  earth  to  proclaim  a  doctrine  which,  in  their  estima- 
tion, might  have  such  consequences ! 

And  they  will  be  all  the  more  induced  to  consider  the  defini- 
tion of  the  Pope's  infallibility  as  an  implied  consecration  of  these 


APPENDIX.  317 

dreaded  doctrines,  seeing  that  these  doctrines  are  far  from  being 
abandoned.  The  journals  tliat  give  themselves  out  among  us 
for  the  pure  representatives  of  Roman  principles,  unceasingly 
parade  these  doctrines  in  their  columns,  establish  them  v^^ith  a 
great  array  of  arguments,  and  even  venture  to  brand,  as  tainted 
with  atheism,  the  doctrine  to  which  both  Catholic  and  non- 
Catholic  sovereigns  adhere  so  firmly — that  of  the  independence 
of  the  two  powers,  each  in  its  own  sphere. 

But  a  little  while  ago,  we  read  in  a  French  journal  the  follow- 
ing W' ords,  quoted  with  approbation,  wherein  those  who  main- 
tain that  the  two  swords  are  not  in  the  same  hand  are  compared 
to  the  Manichees : 

"  Can  it  be,  then,  that  there  are  two  sources  of  authority  and 
power,  two  supreme  aims  for  the  members  of  one  and  the  same 
society,  two  different  objects  in  the  mind  of  the  divine  organizer, 
and  two  distinct  doctrines  for  one  and  the  same  man  who  is  both 
a  member  of  the  Church  and  a  subject  of  the  State  ?  But  who 
does  not  see  at  once  the  absurdity  of  such  a  system  ?  It  is  the 
dualism  of  the  Manichees,  if  it  is  not  atheism." 

That  is  also  what  the  Abbe  de  Lamennais  claimed  in  the  ex- 
travagances of  his  logic ;  and  he  set  up  against  the  first  of  the 
four  articles  this  dilemma:  ultramontane  or  atheist.  These  ex- 
travagances of  his  have  met  with  but  little  success.  And,  to  all 
intents,  the  writers  in  question  belong,  in  this  respect,  to  the 
school  of  Lamennais.  But  the  more  they  reproach  governments 
with  not  admitting  the  doctrine  of  the  Bull  Unam  sanctam^  and 
with  holding  fast  to  the  independence  of  the  two  powers,  the 
*more  they  themselves  will  demonstrate  the  strength  of  the  repug- 
nances and  the  universality  of  the  alienations  that  I  dread. 

And  when  I  speak  of  the  independence  of  the  two  powers,  far 
be  it  from  me  to  throw  a  moment's  doubt  upon  the  divine  and 
sure  authority  of  the  Church  to  define,  to  proclaim,  and  to  re- 
iterate, both  to  government  and  to  subject,  the  sacred  and  eternal 
laws  of  right  and  wa'ong.  But  everybody  understands,  and  it  is 
perfectly  obvious,  that  that  is  not  the  question. 

No ;  this  old  irritability  is  not  on  the  point  of  disappearing ; 


318  APPENDIX. 

passionate  journalism  has  done  all  it  could  to  revive  it ;  and  we 
can  affirm  with  certainty  that  nowhere,  either  in  France,  or  in 
Catholic  Austria,  or  in  Bavaria,  or  on  the  borders  of  the  Rhine, 
or  in  apostolic  Spain,  or  in  that  Portugal  which  but  lately  ex- 
pelled the  Sisters  of  Charity,  is  the  disposition  of  European  gov- 
ernments favorable  to  the  proclamation  of  the  proposed  dogma. 

Does  it  seem  to  you,  then,  that  the  hour  has  come  for  arousing 
animosities  against  the  Holy  See  from  one  end  of  Europe  to  the 
other  ? 

Or,  rather,  is  not  the  present  hour  already  replete  with  dangers 
sufficiently  numerous  and  sufficiently  great  ? 

Do  you  wish  to  make  the  separation  of  Church  and  State  the 
order  of  the  day  throughout  all  Europe  ? 

Do  you  wish  to  force  the  Council  into  still  other  hazards  ? 
How  little  it  would  take,  in  the  present  state  of  Italy  and  of 
Europe,  to  bring  about  the  greatest  misfortunes ! 

We  cannot  shut  our  eyes  to  the  facts ;  there  are  certain  spirits 
who  are  bent  upon  driving  the  Church  to  the  last  extremity. 

In  what  interest  ? 

VIII.  I  have  now  come  to  the  theological  difficulties,  not  ex- 
actly of  papal  infallibility  itself— this  question,  let  me  repeat,  I 
am  not  discussing  one  way  or  the  other — but  to  the  theological 
difficulties  of  defining  it ;  for  these  difficulties,  if  really  serious, 
are  an  additional  and  a  strong  argument  against  its  opportune- 
ness. 

Are  the  journalists  who  seem  disposed  to  enjoin  it  on  the 
Council  to  define  Papal  infallibility,  and  to  define  it  by  acclama- 
tion, aware  of  the  conditions  under  which  the  Council  would 
have  to  make  this  definition  ?  Really,  one  would  not  say  so,  to 
see  the  manner  in  which  they  speak  of  it ; — as  if  they  had  no  idea 
how  strange,  how  monstrously  abnormal,  how  utterly  impossible 
is  the  part  they  are  laying  out  for  themselves,  especially  for  the 
last  six  months,  meddling  to  the  extent  that  they  do  with  the 
most  sacred  matters  in  the  government  of  the  Church. 

I  am  not  surprised,  moreover,  at  their  extraordinaiy  impru- 
dence.  They  are  no  theologians.   You,  Gentlemen,  are  acquainted 


APPENDIX.  319 

with  all  the  questions  that  I  am  going  to  remind  you  of;  you 
have  been  taught  them  in  our  schools.  But  at  the  same  time  that 
you  are  taught  them,  you  are  also  taught  not  to  discourse  upon 
them  needlessly  to  the  faithful.  As  priests,  you  have  a  double 
duty — to  study  things  that  are  obscure,  to  preach  only  things  that 
are  clear.  As  to  the  laity,  let  me  repeat,  I  do  not  blame  them  for 
being  ignorant,  but  I  do  blame  them  for  agitating  and  deciding 
questions  of  which  they  are  ignorant.  They  know  not  what 
difficulties  they  are  running  against  foolhardily,  and  it  becomes 
my  unpleasant  duty  to  give  them  warning,  by  reminding  you, 
Gentlemen,  of  what  you  know  already. 

"  In  so  grate,  so  delicate,  so  complicated  a  matter,"  thus,  with 
excellent  judgment,  speaks  his  Grace  the  Bishop  of  Poitiers,  "we 
should  not  suffer  ourselves  to  be  governed  either  by  enthusiasm 
or  by  personal  feeling :  eveiy  word  should  be  weighed  and  ex- 
plained, every  phase  of  the  question  examined,  every  case  fore- 
seen, every  false  application  eliminated,  all  the  disadvantages 
weighed  against  the  advantages." 

Moreover,  the  Bishop  of  Poitiers  is  not  the  only  one  that 
speaks  thus.  Among  theologians,  the  greatest  partisans  them- 
selves of  infallibility  admit  the  prodigious  practical  difficulties 
that  may  be  encountered.  The  difficulties,  they  say,  are  inex- 
tricable, iniricatisdmcB  difficultates ;  and  the  ablest  men,  they  say, 
have  the  utmost  difficulty  in  getting  out  of  them — in  quihus  dis- 
solvendis  multum  theologi  peritiores  laborant. 

1.  Difficulties  arising  from  the  necessity  of  defining  the  condi- 
tions of  the  act  ex  cathedra — not  all  the  pontifical  acts  having 
that  character. 

2.  Difficulties  arising  from  the  twofold  character  of  the  Pope, 
considered  either  as  a  private  teacher  or  as  a  Pope. 

3.  Difficulties  arising  from  the  manifold  questions  of  fact  that 
may  be  raised  with  regard  to  every  act  ex  cathedra. 

4.  Difficulties  caused  by  the  past  and  by  historic  facts. 

5.  Difficulties  arising  from  the  veiy  essence  of  the  question. 

3.  Difficulties,  finally,  arising  from  the  state  of  contemporary 
minds. 


320  APPENDIX. 

The  first  thing,  then,  for  the  Council  to  do,  before  laying  down 
a  dogmatic  definition,  would  be  to  determine  the  conditions  of 
infallibility ;  for  to  define  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope,  without 
settling  and  defining  the  conditions  of  that  infallibility,  would  be 
to  define  nothing,  since  it  would  be  either  defining  too  much  or 
not  defining  enough. 

How  are  these  conditions  to  be  determined  ?  Theologians  are 
at  issue  on  this  matter,  whether  theoretically,  in  the  abstract,  or 
practically,  in  the  concrete.  In  a  word,  when  and  how  is  the 
Pope  infallible  ?  That  is  what  must  be  determined.  Yet  on  this 
point  the  difficulties  are  anything  but  trifling. 

Is  the  Pope  infallible  whenever  he  speaks  ?  Some  theologians 
have  maintained  this.  Or  is  he  only  infallible  when  he  speaks, 
as  they  say,  ex  cathedra  ? 

Now  it  is  precisely  in  defining  the  conditions  of  utterance  ex 
cathedrU  that  the  Council,  should  it  see  fit  to  take  up  this  matter, 
would  find  plenty  of  study,  and  plenty  of  work. 

What,  in  fact,  is  an  utterance  ex  cathedra  ?  What  are  its  con- 
ditions ?  This  point  is  discussed  in  all  the  schools  ;  some  require 
more,  others  less.  Cardinal  Orsi  does  not  speak  exactly  like  Car- 
dinal Bellarmin,  nor  Bellarmin  like  Capellari,  who  was  after- 
ward Pope  Gregory  XVI. 

Mansi  speaks  either  of  "  Councils  previously  assembled,"  or  of 
"  doctors  convoked,"  or  of  "  Congregations  appointed,"  and  of 
"  public  supplications."  "  Without  these^''  he  says,  "  let  Bossuet  be 
indeed  assured  that  ice  no  longer  recognize  the  Pope  as  infallible.''^* 

Bellarmin  endeavors  to  reconcile  those  who  say,  PontifePi 
consilium  audiat  aliorum  pasiorum — let  the  Pope  listen  to  the 
counsel  of  other  pastors — with  those  who  say  that  he  can  define 
of  himself  alone,  etiajii  solus.jf 

Well !  in  the  presence  of  all  these  differences  of  opinion,  and 
I  cite  here  only  a  few  of  them — since  a  much  larger  number  is 
estimated,  even  among  the  ultramontane  theologians — how  shall 
the  Council  act  ?  Approving  some,  disapproving  others,  it  must 
undertake  the  hard  task  of  making  choice  in  a  dogmatic  and 

*  De  Maistre,  Du  Pape,  liv.  I.  ch.  x.  5.        t  Disputationes  Bellarmini. 


APPENDIX.  321 

absolute  manner  among  all  these  theological  opinions.  But  upon 
what  sure,  clear,  and  indisputable  grounds  will  it  rely  in  doing  that  ? 

Once  more,  what,  precisely,  is  an  act  ex  cathedra  ? 

Is  it  a  simple  brief?  Some  say  yes ;  others,  no.  Is  it  a  re- 
script ?     Is  it  a  bull,  a  consistorial  allocution,  an  encyclical  ? 

Must  the  Pope,  in  an  act  ex  cathedra,  address  himself  to  the  en- 
tire Church  ?  The  greater  number  say  yes.  No,  says  an  Eng- 
lishman, a  lay  professor  of  theology*  and  a  contemporary  jour- 
nalist :  even  though  the  Pope  should  have  spoken  to  only  a 
single  bishop,  even  to  a  single  lay  brother,  he  may  have  wished 
to  teach  ex  cathedra.    And  that  is  sufficient. 

"Well,  then,  is  it  necessary,  as  some  claim,  to  avoid  all  doubt  as 
to  his  intention,  that  the  Pope  should  define  the  doctrine  under 
penalty  of  anathema  against  error  ? 

Or  is  it  enough,  as  others  pretend,  that  he  should  express,  in 
any  manner  whatever,  his  intention  of  making  a  dogma  ? 

Or,  indeed — and  this  is  maintained  by  the  lay  theologian  whom 
I  have  just  cited — can  he  speak  ex  cathedra,  even  though  lie 
should  not  distinctly  express  his  intention  of  commanding  assent? 
Etianui  oUigatio  assensum  prcestandi  non  diserte  exprimatur.\ 

Or,  as  others  claim,  must  the  Pope  take  counsel?  And,  if 
so,  whom  must  he  consult  ?  Some  of  the  bishops  ?  Or,  in  the 
absence  of  bishops,  the  cardinals  ?  Or,  in  the  absence  of  car- 
dinals, the  Roman  congregations  ?  Or,  in  the  absence  of  the 
congregations,  some  of  the  theologians,  or  of  the  doctors ;  and  if 
so,  how  many  ?  Would  it  be  enough  for  him  to  prepare  a  de- 
cree alone  in  his  closet?  Why  make  any  distinction,  say  some, 
wiien  the  words  of  promise  make  none  ? 

Moreover,  here  is  another  contemporary  theologian,  the  Ger- 
man, Phillips,  who  does  not  stop  at  this  difficulty.  According  to 
him,  a  definition  ex  catliedra  does  not  require  that  the  Pope  should 
have  consulted  any  one  whatever,  either  the  Council,  or  the 

*  Mr.  Ward,  De  Infallibilitatis  extenpione,  thesis  duodecima,  p.  35.  Mr. 
Ward  is  a  converted  Anglican  minister,  now  a  zealous  Catholic,  who,  although 
a  layman,  has  been  professor  of  theology  In  the  Grand  Seminary  of  the  Arch- 
diocese of  Westminster. 

t  Mr.  Ward,  Thesis  duodecima. 

14* 


322  APPENDIX. 

Koman  Church,  or  the  College  of  Cardinals.  The  German  doc- 
tor goes  still  farther ;  according  to  him,  it  is  not  necessary  that 
the  Pope  should  give  tlie  definition  any  ripe  consideration  ; 

Or  that  lie  should  study  the  question  carefully^  hy  the  light  of  the 
word  of  God^  icritten  and  traditional ; 

Or  that  he  should  pray  to  Ood,  before  pronouncing. 

Without  any  of  these  conditions,  his  decision  would  be  not  less  validy 
not  less  effective,  not  less  obligatory  upon  all  the  Church,  than  if  lie 
had  observed  all  the  precautions  dictated  by  faith,  piety ,  and  good  sense. 

"What,  then,  is  needed,  according  to  this  doctor,  in  order  that 
a  definition  should  be  ex  cathedra  ?  This :  "  It  remains  to  be  said, 
after  the  above,  in  order  to  defend  the  validity  of  a  decision  ex 
cathedra,  Uiat  it  exists  whenever  the  Pope,  in  Council  or  out  of 
Council,  VERBALLY  or  by  writing,  pronounces  to  all  faithful 
Christians,  as  Vicar  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  name  of  the  apostles 
Peter  and  Paul,  or  by  virtue  of  the  authority  of  the  Holy  See, 
or  in  similar  terms,  with  or  without  the  threat  of  anathema,  a  de- 
cision concerning  dogma  or  morals." 

According  to  this  theologian,  the  Church  has  not  the  right  to 
lay  down  any  restriction,  any  condition  whatever,  touching  the 
validity  or  the  exercise  of  infallibility, 

A  French  writer,  the  author  of  a  recent  treatise.  Be  Papa,  says 
essentially  the  same  thing,  and  claims,  for  the  infallibility  of  the 
Pope  speaking  to  the  Church  universal,  only  one  condition — not 
that  he  should  have  prayed,  not  that  he  should  have  deliberated, 
studied,  taken  counsel,  but  simply  that  he  should  have  had  the 
intention  of  making  a  dogma,  and  that  he  should  have  been  free 
from  all  constraint. 

Mr.  Ward,  as  we  have  seen,  does  not  even  claim  that  the  Pope 
should  address  the  Church ;  if  he  addresses  a  single  bishop,  a 
single  lay  member,  that  is  sufficient. 

You  see,  then,  how  some  do  not  hesitate,  to-day,  to  treat  these 
immense  questions. 

I  say  some,  and  I  beg  you  to  note  this  word  ;  for  I  would  not 
have  all  the  most  radical  theories  set  down,  contrary  to  my  in- 
tention, to  the  account  of  Catholic  theology. 


APPENDIX.        ^  823 

Well !  will  the  Council,  in  view  of  all  these  opinions,  declare 
that  there  is  a  necessary  form  in  which  the  Pope  shall  he  obliged 
to  exercise  his  infallibility?  Or  would  the  form  go  for  nothing, 
and  the  Pope  be  infallible  when  and  how  he  should  see  fit,  with- 
out having  prayed,  or  studied,  or  taken  counsel,  merely  .address- 
ing himself  to  the  first-comer  ? 

And  since  determining  the  circumstances  under  wiiich  the 
Pope  is  infallible  is  also  determining  those  in  which  he  is  not, 
there  will  then  be  two  dogmas  to  define,  instead  of  one — the 
dogma  of  infallibility,  and  the  dogma  of  fallibility.  It  will  be 
declared,  as  a  matter  of  faith,  that  the  Pope  is  infallible  under 
such  and  such  conditions,  but  that  without  them  he  is  fallible. 

And  how,  I  repeat,  shall  w^e  set  about  fixing  these  limits? 
Where  are  they  clearly  laid  down  in  the  Scriptures  ?  Where,  in 
the  teachings  of  the  theologians,  so  diverse  and  so  contradictory 
on  this  point?  What  opinions  are  we  going  to  establish  as  dog- 
mas, what  as  heresies  ? 

And  if  this  is  not  done,  into  what  terra  incognita  are  we  going 
to  precipitate  the  Church  ? 

IX.  But  this  is  not  all.  Besides  the  question  of  laio^  there  will 
also  be  the  question  of  fad.  Who  shall  decide,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  whether  such  or  such  a  decision  of  the  Pope  fulfils  all  the 
conditions  of  a  decree  ex  catJiedra  ?  Will  this  always  be  easy  to 
ascertain  ?    No, 

The  most  advanced  partisans  of  Papal  infallibility  acknowl- 
edge this  in  good  faith.  The  English  theologian,  Ward,  for 
instance,  says  expressly :  "  Inasmuch  as  all  Papal  allocutions,  all 
apostolical  letters,  even  all  encyclical  letters,  do  not  contain  defi- 
nitions ex  cathedra,  they  must  he  closely  examined  in  order  to  ascer- 
tain in  a  satisfactory  manner  which  of  them  are  acts  in  which  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff  may  be  said  to  speak  ex  cathedra;  and  we 
must  examine  closely  even  the  acts  ex  cathedra  themselves,  to  as- 
certain clearly  what  he  teaches  ex  cathedra,'''  that  is,  infallibly.* 

*  "  Circa  has  igitur  allocutiones  et  litteras  apostolica?  adlaborandum  est,  ut 
satis  dignoscatur  in  quibusnara  eariim  Pontifex  ex  cathedra  loqui,  et  quid- 
nam  ex  cathedra  docere,  jure  censeatur." 


324  APPENDIX. 

And  this  discrimination  is  often  so  difficult,  even  for  theologi- 
ans, that  Mr.  Ward  acknowledges,  with  a  modesty  that  does  him 
honor,  that  he  committed  and  obstinately  persisted  in  a  grave 
error  concerning  the  nature  of  the  pontifical  acts  of  various 
kinds,  denouncing  the  propositions  designated  subsequently  in  a 
recent  communication  emanating  from  Rome.  He  had  thought, 
and  had  maintained,  that  each  one  of  the  acts  that  supplied  the 
propositions  for  the  collection  called  tJie  Syllabus,  should  be  re- 
garded, on  the  strength  of  that  alone,  as  having:  the  character  of 
an  act  ex  cathedra.    This,  he  now  admits  frankly,  was  a  great  error. 

Ecclesiastical  history,  moreover,  is  full  of  similar  instances. 
We  have  only  to  remember  certain  important  acts  of  the  Popes 
in  the  past,  about  which  theologians  have  disputed  so  much, 
and  still  dispute,  as  to  whether  they  are  or  are  not  ex  cathedra. 

When  Pope  Stephen  condemned  Saint  Cyprian  in  the  matter 
of  the  baptism  of  heretics,  did  he  speak  ex  cathedra? 

Some  affirm  it,  others  deny  it. 

When  Pope  Honorius,  consulted  upon  the  question  of  mono- 
thelism  by  Sergius,  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  and  other  East- 
ern bishops,  wrote  those  famous  letters  which  gave  rise  to  so 
many  debates,  did  he  speak  ex  cathedraf  Theologians  have  had 
keen  disputes  on  that  also. 

Who,  then,  shall  decide  ?  The  Church.  It  will  often  be  neces- 
sary, then,  to  resort,  after  all,  to  the  Church. 

And  indeed,  besides  the  two  questions  of  fact  about  which  Mr. 
Ward  speaks,  and  which  must  be  broached  with  regard  to  eveiy 
act  ex  cathedra — Is  the  act  one  ex  cathedra  ? — And  if  it  is,  what 
are  its  bearings  ? — there  is  still  another,  not  so  simple  in  practice 
as  one  might  at  first  suppose.     It  is  this  : 

May  there  not  arise,  in  course  of  time,  a  Pope,  concerning 
whose  liberty  there  will  be  reasonable  doubts? 

The  most  zealous  are  forced  to  acknowledge  this,  and  to  admit, 
in  view  of  history,  that  a  Pope  may,  under  the  influence  of  fear^ 
define  error. 

That  makes,  then,  under  certain  circumstances,  a  third  question 
of  fact  to  l^e  established— the  full  and  entire  liberty  of  the  Pope. 


APPENDIX.  325 

Is  there  not  a  fourth  ?  For  if  a  Pope,  even  one  declared  in- 
fallible, might,  even  in  an  act  ex  cathedra,  err  through  intimida- 
tion and  fear,  could  he  not  err  from  excitement,  passion,  impru- 
dence? The  partisans  of  infallibility  say  not.  God,  they  say, 
will  not  work  a  miracle  in  the  first  case,  to  prevent  a  weak  Pope 
from  yielding  to  fear ;  but  he  always  will  in  the  second,  to  pre- 
vent a  passionate  or  rash  Pope  from  erring  by  reason  of  impru- 
dence; and  that,  some  of  them  add,  even  although  the  Pope 
should  not  have  taken  any  of  those  precautions  commonly  taken 
in  serious  aflFairs.  According  to  them,  a  Pope  can  define  error 
through  weakness  ;  not  otherwise. 

That  is  the  explanation  given  by  these  theologians.  But  I  sub- 
mit this  question :  Will  it  always  be  easy  to  estimate  the  con- 
straint to  which  a  Pope  may  have  been  subjected  ?  No.  There 
may  arise  cases  in  which  such  a  determination  would  be  a  mat- 
ter of  the  greatest  delicacy ;  and  "  every  case  should  be  antici- 
pated." 

Also,  "  every  phase  of  the  question  examined." 

Do  you  think  that  the  solution  of  all  these  difficulties  will  be  a 
slight  undertaking  for  the  Council?  And  these  newspaper 
writers,  who  talk  so  glibly  about  it,  because  its  difficulties  do  not 
make  them  much  trouble — they  do  not  even  see  them — are  they 
authorized  to  lay  their  orders  on  the  Bishops,  as  they  do,  to  un- 
dertake this  business  ? 

X.  It  is  easy  to  say  that  the  question  is  already  decided ;  but 
real,  sound  theologians  know  that,  in  fact,  it  is  no  such  thing,  and 
that  if  the  Council  is  to  proceed  in  this  matter  with  that  delibera- 
tion and  gravity  in  which  these  holy  assemblies  of  the  Church 
have  never  failed  whenever  the  question  has  been  on  the  procla- 
mation of  dogmas,  that  its  discussions  may  be  long  and  laborious. 

Is  tradition,  whatever  may  be  its  testimony,  unanimous  on  this 
point  ?  Is  history  free  from  embarrassment  ?  It  is  in  this  direc- 
tion especially  that  the  definition  of  papal  infallibility  would  in- 
volve the  Council— should  it  feel  itself  under  obligation  to  enter 
upon  the  question— in  the  longest  and  most  delicate  investiga- 
tions. 


326  APPENDIX. 

Indeed,  by  defining  the  personal  infallibility  of  the  Pope,  we 
should  not  only  bind  the  future  but  also  the  past.  For,  if  the 
Pope  is  infallible,  he  has  always  been  so.  The  proclamation  of 
this  dogma  would,  at  a  single  stroke,  confer  the  character  of  in- 
fallibility upon  all  that  the  Popes  have  decided  for  eighteen  cen- 
turies, provided  they  had  decided  under  the  conditions  and  in  the 
forms  laid  down  for  the  exercise  of  infallibility.  I  say  that  the 
Council  could  not  have  a  graver  and  knottier  subject  to  examine. 

I  reminded  you,  just  now,  of  two  historic  facts — the  dispute 
between  Pope  Saint  Stephen  and  Saint  Cyprian,  and  the  reply  of 
Pope  Honorius  to  Sergius  on  the  subject  of  monothelism.  Well ! 
if  it  were  shown  that  Saint  Stephen  had  pronounced  ex  cat7iedra, 
infallibly,  bindingly,  then  Saint  Cyprian  and  the  bishops  who  re- 
sisted were  not  believers  in  the  infallibility  of  the  Pope  ? 

And  Saint  Augustine,  who  excuses  them,  because,  says  he,  the 
Church  had  not  yet  pronounced,*  he  did  not  believe  in  it  either  ? 
And  when  he  wrote  concerning  the  Donatists,  that  after  the 
judgment  of  Rome  there  still  remained  the  judgment  of  the 
Church  universal,  restabat  adhuc  ^lenarium  unwers<B  Ecclesus  con- 
cilium,} he  believed,  then,  that  after  the  judgment  of  Rome  the 
judgment  of  the  Church  should  go  for  something  in  defining  the 
faith.  That  is  a  fresh  instance  of  the  difficulties  which  might  be 
brought  up  by  an  examination  of  the  facts  of  history. 

Just  so  in  the  case  of  Honorius.  Volumes  have  been  written 
to  prove  that  the  acts  of  the  Sixth  Council,  which  condemned 
him,  have  been  altered ;  volumes  to  prove  that  this  Pope  did  not 
teach  heresy ;  other  volumes  still,  to  prove  that  Honorius  only 
wrote  a  private  letter. 

However  it  may  be  with  these  discussions,  which  it  is  so  un- 
fortunate to  bring  up  again — whether  Honorius  was  a  heretic, 
and  justly  condemned  as  such  by  an  Oecumenical  Council  that 
declared  Honorio  hmretico  anathema;  or  whether  he  was  simply 
an  abettor  of  heresy,  and  reproved  as  such  by  the  Popes,  his  suc- 
cessors, in  the  oath  that  they  pronounced  at  their  consecration, 
Qui  pravis  eorum  asseriionibus  fomentum  impendit  (the  expression 
*  Saint  Augustine,  De  Baptismo.  t  Epis.  ad  Geor.  Eleus.,  xlviii. 


APPENDIX.  327 

in  the  Liher  diurnaUs  pontificalis,  a  collection  of  the  authentic 
acts  of  the  Roman  chancery) — over  and  above  these  undisputed 
points  of  history,  another  question,  a  ver}'-  serious  one  truly,  pre- 
sents itself  in  this  place ;  to  wit — 

In  those  times,  then,  did  the  Ecumenical  Council,  consequently 
the  Church,  consider  the  Sovereign  Pontiff,  while  sending  dog- 
matic letters,  literas  dogmaticas^  to  great  churches  upon  a  matter 
of  faith,  as  liable  to  error,  and  the  assembled  bishops  as  compe- 
tent to  condemn  and  anathematize  him  ? 

Pope  Leo  II.  confirmed  the  sentence  of  the  Council;  the 
Churches  of  the  East  and  the  West  accepted  it.  Did,  then,  Pope 
Leo  II.  and  the  Churches  also  believe  that  a  Pope,  pronouncing 
upon  matters  of  faith  brought  before  his  tribunal,  may  deserve 
the  anathema  ? 

That  is  a  point  upon  which  the  Council  would  have  to  decide. 

I  have  neither  the  intention  nor  the  time  to  do  here  what  the 
Council  would  have  to  do  in  order  to  proceed  with  the  wonted 
circumspection  of  Councils — to  take  a  complete  review  of  the 
history.  I  pass  by  the  difficulties  that  the  cases  of  Popes  Vigilius 
and  Liberius  might  occasion.  But  I  beg  leave  to  remind  you 
of  a  single  fact  more.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  one  of  the  Popes, 
Paschal  II.,  makes  the  Emperor  of  Germany,  Henry  V.,  such  an 
exorbitant  concession  in  the  matter  of  the  investiture  of  bishops, 
that  a  Council  meets  at  Vienna,  and  an  Archbishop,  who  was 
destined  himself,  subsequently,  to  ascend  the  throne  of  Saint 
Peter,  under  the  name  of  Calixtus  II.,  declares  that  the  con- 
cession made  by  the  Pope  implies  an  actual  heresy,  hmredm  esse 
judicavimus^  and  condemns  his  letter  to  the  Emperor. 

And  the  Pope  himself,  before  the  entire  Lateran  Council,  in 
the  presence  of  more  than  one  hundred  bishops,  had  already  hu- 
miliated nimself  of  his  own  accord,  and  the  Council  had  over- 
ruled and  annulled  his  concession. 

Whether,  then.  Paschal  II.  was  to  blame  or  not,  at  all  events 
his  contemporaries,  and  he  himself,  believed  that  a  Pope  may 
lapse  into  heresy. 

*  Cone.  t.  III.,  p.  1331. 


328  APPENDIX. 

Will  you  say  that  an  implied  heresy  (yet  one  worthy  of  anath- 
ema), in  a  high  pontifical  act,  proves  nothing  against  infallibility, 
when  this  act  is  not  a  definition  ex  cathedra  ?  But  how  will  you 
make  the  multitude  understand  these  distinctions  ? 

For  here  is  another  side  of  the  question,  one  to  which  the 
Council  would  also  have  to  devote  its  serious  attention — the  con- 
sequences of  the  definition  in  the  view  of  the  men  of  our  times. 

XI.  We  must  not  indulge  in  any  illusions,  not  merely  as  to  un- 
believing minds,  but  also  as  to  the  enormous  mass  of  minds  in 
whom  faith  is  weak.  For  my  own  part,  I  cannot  think,  without 
horror,  of  the  number  of  those  whom  the  definition  now  called 
for  would  perhaps  alienate  from  us  forever  ! 

But  even  for  the  faithful,  would  the  definition  be  free  from  dis- 
advantages ? 

I  find  myself  constrained  here  to  put  questions  that  are  pro- 
foundly repugnant  to  me.  But  I  am  speaking  of  the  past  and 
in  behalf  of  the  future.  People  force  us  to  awaken  the  slumber- 
ing past,  and  we  have  to  labor  for  future  centuries. 

We  have,  then  (let  us  suppose),  the  Pope  declared  infallible — 
the  Pope,  who,  nevertheless,  as  a  writer,  as  a  private  teacher, 
may  make  a  heretical  book  and  may  obstinately  persist  in  heresy. 
That  is  the  general  opinion. 

Still  more,  we  have  the  Pope,  who  can,  even  as  Pope,  when 
he  does  not  speak  ex  cathedra — and  even  when  he  does  speak  ex 
ca^/ietZra,  in  whatever  is  not  the  precise  subject  of  his  definition — 
who  can,  according  to  universal  opinion,  err  and  teach  error ; 
and  then  be  judged,  condemned,  deposed. 

Now,  then,  let  us  suppose  a  Pope  erring  or  q,ccused  of  error; 
it  will  be  necessary  to  prove,  either  that  his  teaching  is  not  ex 
cathedra  or  that  it  is  not  erroneous  :  what  additional  difficulty  if 
the  Pope  has  been  declared  infallible !  Contesting  merely  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  shall  we  not  seem  to  contest  a  matter  of  right  ?  And 
if  the  Pope  persists,  what  confusion  among  the  faithful !  It  will 
be  necessary,  then,  to  prosecute  for  heresy  the  very  man  whose 
infallibility  is  a  dogma. 

Let  some  new  Honorius  arise  hereafter,  who  shall,  I  do  not  say 


APPENDIX.  329 

define  heresy,  but  foment  it,  by  means  of  dogmatic  letters  ad- 
dressed to  great  churches — the  declaration  of  infallibility  will  not 
prevent  this — can  you  imagine  the  perturbation  that  such  a  case 
would  occasion  among  churches  and  consciences  ? 

No  doubt  the  theologians  will  make  all  the  shades  and  niceties 
of  distinction,  and  show  that  there  was  no  real  definition ;  but 
how  will  the  mass  of  minds  who  are  not  theologians  be  able  to 
discriminate  between  the  Pope  fallible  in  such  and  such  acts, 
even  as  Pope,  and  the  Pope  not  fallible  in  such  and  such  other 
acts  ?  How  will  they  understand  that  he  can  be  infallible,  and 
yet,  by  high  pontifical  acts,  be  a  fomenter  of  heresy  ? 

In  the  eyes  of  the  public  this  will  still  be  infallibilit3^  Hence 
uneasiness  for  consciences  which  will  think  themselves  under 
continual  obligation  to  perform  acts  of  faith ;  and,  for  the  ene- 
mies of  the  Church,  the  opportunity  to  decry  Catholic  doctrine, 
by  imputing  something  to  it  as  dogma  which  is  not  dogma. 

Without  wishing,  I  repeat,  to  touch  the  substantial  question, 
the  question  of  infallibility  itself,  I  cannot  refrain  from  making 
one  reflection  here,  from  the  point  of  view  of  men  of  the  world. 
The  personal  infallibility  of  the  Pope,  not  the  absurd,  uncon- 
ditional, universal  infallibility  of  which  we  were  speaking  a  little 
while  ago,  citing  certain  theologians,  but  infallibility  as  Bellarmin, 
for  instance,  understands  it,  constitutes  an  institution,  not  above 
the  power  of  the  Almighty,  doubtless,  but  certainly  most  pro- 
digious, and  more  astonishing  than  the  infallibilitj'^  of  the  entire 
Church. 

How  does  it  happen — this  is  what  will  astonish  the  faithful — 
how  does  it  happen  that  this  immense  privilege  is  at  once  the  one 
whose  definition,  on  the  showing  of  history,  is  the  least  neces- 
sary, since  the  Church  has  been  able  to  do  without  it  for  eighteen 
centuries,  and  the  one  the  certainty  of  which  is  less  established 
than  the  infallibility  of  the  Church  itself,  since  this  latter  is  and 
always  has  been  an  article  of  faith,  whereas  the  other  has  never 
been  professed  in  the  Church  as  a  dogma  ? 

Moreover,  the  greatest  partisans  of  infallibility  themselves  set 
forth' the  immense  practical  difficulties  that  may  be  entailed  by 


330  APPENDIX. 

tliese  two  modes  of  existence  of  the  Pope,  fallible  or  infallible, 
according  to  circumstances.  Intricaiissimce  difficultates,  they  say, 
in  quibus  dmolvendis  multum  peHtiores  theologl  Idborant. 

And  indeed  —  still  following  their  own  statements  —  here  are 
some  of  the  painful  questions  that  may  arise:  Does  a  Pope,  by 
the  act  of  heres}^  cease  to  be  a  Pope  ? — By  whom  and  how  can 
he  be  deposed  ? — When  may  the  Pope  be  said  to  act  as  a  Pope, 
when  as  a  private  individual?  &c.,  &c.  An  Papa  per  Ticeresim  a 
dlgnitate  excidat?  A  quo  ei  quomodo  xtemat  deponendusf  Quan- 
donam  ut  Pontifex,  aut  ut  privata  persona,  agere  censeatur. 

Will  the  declaration  of  infallibility  render  all  these  difficulties 
less  inextricable  ?  On  the  contrary,  it  would,  in  practice,  add  to 
them  enormous  embarrassments. 

Accordingly,  certain  ultramontane  theologians*  see  only  one 
way  of  extricating  themselves — namely,  by  proclaiming  the  abso- 
lute, unconditional,  and  universal  infallibility  of  the  Pope.  Other- 
wise, and  if  only  a  conditional  infallibility  is  proclaimed —the 
infallibility  ex  cathedra — we  expose  the  Church  to  evident  danger. 
Ecclesia  evidenti  periculo  exponeretur.    And  they  prove  it. 

The  system,  they  say,  of  papal  infallibility  in  certain  cases  and 
fallibility  in  others,  implies  an  actual  contradiction.  May  it  not 
happen  that  a  Pope  shall  teach,  as  Pope,  ex  cathedra,  the  error 
which,  as  a  private  doctor,  he  has  held  to  be  the  truth — that  is, 
shall  define  the  error  in  an  infallible  act,  and  seek  to  impose  it 
upon  the  Church  ?  Posset  namque  ipse  suum  erivrem  definire  et 
Eccledce  obtrudere. 

It  is  said,  in  answer,  that  this  hj'pothesis,  precisely  because  it 
implies  a  contradiction,  will  never  be  realized. 

Then,  the}'  reply,  you  are  forced  to  have  recourse  to  a  miracle : 
a  Pope  who  errs  obstinately,  and  of  course  uses  all  his  efforts  to 
set  forth  his  error  as  the  faith  of  the  Church  {potest  Pontifex  per- 
sonaliter  in  fide  deficere,  errorem  sumn  pertinaciter  tueri,  et,  quod 
amplius  est,  velle  et  conari  eum  EcclesicB  obtrudere  et  proponere),  yet 
who  will  always  refrain  from  defining  it,  and  cannot  come  to  the 
point  of  producing  a  Bull  that  no  human  power  can  prevent  him 

*  Albert  Pighius,  and  others,  cited  by  Bannes,  quaest.  I,  dubit.  2. 


APPENDIX.  331 

from  writing ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  a  Pope  who  thinks  one  way 
and  defines  another :  Aui  certe  grande  miraculum  esset,  quod  ipse 
definiendo  contra  mentem  suam  definiret 

Moreover,  they  add,  is  there  not  in  this  mixture  of  fallibility 
and  infallibility  in  one  and  the  same  man,  a  strange  anomaly,  one 
that  reflects  most  injuriously  on  divine  Providence,  that  could  so 
easily  have  rendered  the  Pope  infallible  in  every  case  as  well  as 
in  a  few  cases  ?  Contra  divinam  Providentiam,  qum  omnia  suamter 
disponit,  piignat  Pontijicem  posse  personaliter  errare. 

In  short,  they  continue,  why  make  any  distinctions  where  Jesus 
Christ  has  made  none  ?  Oram  pfro  te,  Petre,  ut  non  dejiciat  fides 
tua.    That,  say  they,  applies  to  Peter's  faith  in  every  sense ;  de 

FIDE  PETRI  TUM  PERSONALI  ET  PRIVATA,  tlim  publica  Ct  pastOVali, 

intelUgitur. 

Here  are  theologians,  then,  who  state,  who  demonstrate,  the 
perils  of  infallibility  ex  cathedra;  w^ho,  logical  and  resolute,  go  to 
the  very  end,  even  to  the  length  of  the  absolute,  unconditional, 
and  universal  infallibility  of  the  Pope :  so  that  a  Pope,  they  say, 
could  not,  even  if  he  wanted  to,  lapse  into  any  error  public  or  pri- 
vate. Tit  non  possit,  etiamsi  velit,  in  errorem  privatim  aui 
publice  cadere  / 

A  French  theologian*  has  set  forth,  at  length,  this  whole  argu- 
ment, and,  loading  with  abuse  the  greatest  men  of  his  country, 
contents  himself  with  presenting  this  truly  insensate  Romanism 
as  a  perfectly  free  opinion  :  De  libere  controversa  opinione  qua 
tenet  Romanum  Pontifi^em,  etiam  quatenus  doctorem  privatum, 
esse  infallihilem. 

What !  My  God !  We  are  also  free  to  argue,  if  we  like,  on  the 
question  whether  the  men  at  the  antipodes  walk  on  their  heads 
or  their  feet.  There  is  not,  so  far  as  I  know,  any  definition  that 
says  the  contrary,  and  we  should  be  amenable,  on  this  point,  only 
to  good  sense. 

It  is  evident  that  there  are  in  the  Church,  at  this  moment, 
many  excited  people  who  are  hurrying  on  to  strange  excesses ! 

*  De  Faj)a,  torn.  I,  p.  257. 


332  APPENDIX. 

But  the  Council,  we  are  sure,  will  not  peimit  itself  to  be  drawn 
down  any  such  perilous  decline. 

XII.  There  is  more  than  one  point  still  remaining,  on  which 
it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  proclamation  of  the  new  dogma,  if  it 
should  take  place,  would  perplex  and  unsettle,  in  the  minds  of 
the  faithful,  what  they  have  hitherto  believed. 

How,  for  instance,  shall  we  persuade  them  that  this  definition 
will  not  involve,  if  not  in  law,  at  least  in  fact  and  in  practice,  a 
degradation  of  the  Episcopate  ? 

And  first,  from  this  point  of  view,  they  will  ask  themselves — 
"What  will  become  of  the  Councils  ? 

Hitherto  the  Councils  have  been  one  of  the  grandest  forms  of 
Church-life,  one  of  its  mightiest  means  of  action.  '  They  began 
with  the  origin  of  the  Church,  with  the  apostolic  age;  every 
Christian  centuiy,  with  the  exception  of  the  last  two,  has  known 
them.  There  have  even  been  persons  of  high  sanctity,  great 
minds,  Councils  even,  that  have  demanded  or  decreed  the  periodi- 
cal return  of  these  sacred  assemblies.  The  mistrustful  policy  of 
a  regime  that  has  passed  away,  had,  it  is  true,  rendered  them 
during  the  last  few  centuries  more  difficult ;  but  modern  freedom 
has  torn  down  these  jealous  barriers — the  conquests  of  modern 
science,  by  diminishing  distances,  have  opened  rapid  communi- 
cation for  the  bishops  of  the  whole  world  with  the  Eternal  City ; 
and  these  deliberative  assemblies  find  that  while  they  have  be- 
come easier,  they  are  at  the  same  time  more  in  accordance  with 
the  ardent  wishes  of  Christian  peoples. 

May  we  not  see  in  all  this  a  truly  providential  coinci- 
dence ? 

But  if  the  next  Council  should  define  the  infallibility  of  the 
Pope,  would  not  the  faithful  ponder  and  ask  the  question — What 
is  the  use,  henceforth,  of  Oecumenical  Councils?  Now  that  a 
SINGLE  MAN,  the  Popc,  "  WITHOUT  THE  BISHOPS,"  is  able  to  de- 
cide everything  infallibly,  even  questions  of  faith,  why  assemble 
the  bishops  ?  Why  the  delays,  the  investigations,  the  discussions 
of  Councils? 

It  is  evident,  indeed,  that  if  the  new  dogma,  once  proclaimed, 


APPENDIX.  333 

does  not,  de  jure^  suppress  these  great  assemblies,  it  will  at  all 
events,  de  facto,  strangely  diminish  their  importance. 

You  wish  the  future  Council,  then,  to  make  a  decree  that 
would,  henceforth,  suppress  or  weaken  the  Councils ! 

And  that  the  bishops  themselves  should  decree  their  own  ab- 
dication ! 

But  this  is  not  the  only  diminution  that  the  Episcopate  would 
seem  to  undergo  in  the  eyes  of  the  faithful.  Are  not  its  most 
essential  prerogatives  also,  about  which  there  is  no  dispute  among 
Catholics,  going  to  be  marvellously  stripped,  in  practice  at  least, 
of  their  reality  ? 

First,  the  bishops  are  judges  of  the  faith— judges  with  the 
Pope,  of  coui*se,  but  still  really  judges.  And  hitherto  they  have 
always  participated  actively  in  the  judgments  and  definitions  of 
dogma  ;  they  have  always,  in  Council,  decided  as  actual  judges. 
Ego  judicans^  ego  dejiniens,  subscripsi.  They  have  ever  been,  in 
the  words  of  Benedict  XIV.,  c-o-judices,  associate  judges  of  the 
faith  with  the  Pope. 

But,  under  the  new  rule  of  faith,  will  it  not  seem  to  the  faith 
ful  that  there  is  henceforth  only  one  judge,  and  that  the  bishops 
are  no  longer  judges  in  earnest  ?  Their  co-operation,  antecedent 
or  subsequent,  will,  in  fact,  no  longer  be  necessary.  The  infalli- 
ble judgment  of  the  Pope,  as  Archbishop  Manning  says,  will  be 
complete  and  perfect  in  itself,  "  without  aistd  independently  of 
THE  EPISCOPATE !"  If  such  is  the  will  of  the  Pope,  they  will  no 
longer  count  for  anything  in  definitions  of  faith.  Then  there 
wiU  be,  in  fact,  but  one  single  judge — the  Pope. 

Indeed,  when  the  Pope  shall  have  proclaimed,  of  himself,  with- 
out the  Episcopate  and  without  any  bishops,  a  dogma  of  faith, 
how  shall  we  make  the  faithful  understand  these  two  things : 
that  the  Pope's  sentence,  immediately,  in  itself,  independently  of 
any  episcopal  assent,  has  the  force  of  res  judicata  ;  and  secondly, 
that  the  bishops  still  remain  real  judges  ! 

What  sentence  can  they  pass  ? — A  sentence  of  simple  assent, 
you  say. — But  that  sentence  will  be  free,  at  least  ?  No ;  it  will 
not  be  free,  for  they  will  be  obliged  to  assent.— Is  it  even  re- 


834  APPENDIX. 

quired  ?  No ;  it  is  not  required  in  any  way,  for  the  sentence  of 
the  Pope  is  obligatoiy  in  itself,  iadependently  of  any  assent  on 
the  part  of  the  Episcopate. 

I  ask  myself  whether,  under  such  conditions,  the  faithful  will 
still  consider  the  bishops  as  real  judges? 

What  would  they  think  of  a  tribunal  in  which  the  president 
would  have  the  privilege  of  deciding  and  judging  everything  for 
himself,  so  that  all  the  other  judges  would  be  obliged  to  concur 
with  him  ?  The  vote  of  the  president  alone  would  sufBce  ;  the 
opinion  of  the  others  would  be  fashioned  by  his,  dictated  by  his  ; 
no  one,  after  he  had  pronounced,  could  judge  differently ;  and 
the  concurrence  of  his  colleagues  would  not  even  be  required  for 
the  decision. 

Evidently,  such  a  tribunal  would  appear  a  mockery ;  and  of 
judges  there  would  be,  in  reality,  only  one. 

Theologians  may  argue  and  make  distinctions.  But  the  faith- 
ful, the  great  public  who  do  not  understand  theological  distinc- 
tions, where  would  they  stand  ? 

"Without  doubt  the  Pope  is  the  principal  judge,  and  his  opinion 
is  always  indispensable.  Not  only  does  he  preside  over  the 
com-t,  but  he  confirms  the  opinion  of  the  other  judges.  In  or- 
dinaiy  courts,  the  vote  of  the  presiding  judge  commonly  pre- 
ponderates; but  in  the  Church,  the  vote  of  the  Pope  is  essential, 
and  the  judgment  of  the  bishops,  even  in  an  (Ecumenical  Council, 
is  only  final  when  that  of  the  Pope  is  superadded.  In  a  word,  in 
definitions  of  faith,  the  bishops  and  the  Pope  have  each  their 
necessary  parts.  Would  that  be  still  true  of  the  bishops,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  faithful,  when  the  Pope,  declared  infallible,  should 
judge  alone? 

Xni.  Let  us  continue.  Gentlemen — placing  ourselves  still  at 
the  point  of  view  of  the  faithful — to  seek  for  and  examine  the 
probable  disadvantages  of  the  dogmatic  definition  in  question. 

At  the  same  time  that  they  are  judges  the  bishops  are  also 
TEACHERS.  All  the  catechisms  say  this.  The  words  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  are  explicit.  It  was  to  the  Apostles,  and  consequently 
to  the  bishops,  the  successors  of  the  Apostles,  that  he  siiM,Euntes 


APPENDIX.  335 

docete  omnes  gentes  .  .  .  Ecce  ego  whiscum  sum  omnibus  diebus  ["  Go, 
teach  all  nations.  .  .  .  Behold,  I  am  with  you  alwaj^s  "].  It  was 
to  the  Apostles,  and  consequently  to  the  bishops,  the  successors 
of  the  Apostles,  that  Christ  also  said,  Accipite  Spiritum  sanctum, 
&c.  ["  Receive  the  Holy  Ghost"]  ;  and  finally,  Qui  ws  audit,  me 
audit  [*'  He  that  heareth  you,heareth  me  "].  These  are  all  words 
that  every  believer  knows  by  heart. 

That  was  why  Saint  Paul  said,  Fundati  estis  super  fundamentum 
Apostolorum.  —  Posuit  Episcopos  regere  Ecdedam  ["  Ye  are  built 
upon  the  foundation  of  apostles.  .  .  .  He  hath  made  .  .  .  bishops 
to  rule  the  church  "].* 

All  tradition  has  constantly  herein  likened  the  bishops  to  the. 
apostles ;  and  the  Council  of  Trent,  summing  up  all  tradition, 
says  expressly,  in  speaking  of  the  bishops,  In  locum  Apostolorum 
successerunt. 

So  the  bishops,  then,  are  not  mere  echoes ;  they  are  teachers ; 
they  constitute,  with  the  Pope,  the  Ecclesia  docens. 

But  with  the  personal  infallibility  of  the  Pope,  without  the  con- 
currence of  the  bishops,  "  without  and  independently  of  the 
EPISCOPAL  BODY,"  there  would  be,  in  the  eyes  of  the  faithful,  but 
one  to  define,  but  one  to  teach — a  single  doctor,  a  single  judge. 

And  the  bishops  are  no  longer  voices  in  the  Church,  but  mere 
echoes. 

The  assent  of  the  teaching  body  counting  for  nothing,  then,  in 
what  constitutes  the  essence  of  doctrinal  judgment,  how  can  the 
faithful  understand  that  this  teaching  body  teaches  ? 

Moreover,  Gentlemen,  what  is  the  teaching  of  the  Church  ?  A 
bearing  witness.  Neither  the  Church  nor  the  Pope  makes  the 
dogma ;  they  state  it.  Revelation  is  a  fact ;  revealed  truths  are 
facts.  And  a  doctrinal  judgment  is,  at  bottom,  only  the  attesta- 
tion of  a  revealed  fact.  Now,  when  the  Church,  assembled  or 
scattered,  pronounces  judgment,  that  is  something  that  the  faith- 
ful understand  without  difficalty,— something  that  requires  divine 
aid,  no  doubt,  but  still  thoroughly  in  accordance  with  the  nature 
of  things,  with  the  veiy  harmony  of  the  Church  as  Jesus  Christ 
*  Ephesiaup,  ii.  20;  Acts,  xs.  28. 


836  APPENDIX. 

has  constituted  it.  It  is  a  testimony  confinned  by  all  those  who 
are  witnesses ;  the  particular  Churches  attesting,  by  the  very  fact 
that  they  bear  witness  to  it,  the  faith  of  the  Church  universal. 
When  all  the  Churches,  when  the  body  of  pastors  united  with 
their  chief  has  spoken,  by  that  act  the  faith  of  the  Church  is  fixed ; 
what  was  only  implied  has  become  explicit,  and  the  dogma  is 
defined,  and  the  great  Catholic  maxim  is  realized — Quod  ubique^ 
quod  semper,  quod  ah  omnibus.  The  faithful  readily  comprehend 
that. 

Whereas  a  doctrinal  judgment  of  the  Pope  alone,  without  the 
requisition  of  any  assent  from  the  Episcopate,  would  present 
itself  to  them  in  a  very  different  aspect.  That  would  be,  in  a 
matter  of  testimony,  one  witness  authorized  at  his  discretion  to 
supplant  all  the  others ;  a  single  witness  instead  of  all ;  one  witness 
that  has  no  need,  unless  he  likes,  of  the  other  witnesses  or  of  their 
testimony  to  learn  what  is  the  tradition  and  faith  of  their 
Churches. 

That  is  to  say,  in  place  of  something  very  simple,  very  intelli- 
gible, in  the  spiritual  order,  you  would  substitute,  in  the  eyes  of 
the  faithful,  something  extraordinary,  something  abnormal,  a  per- 
petual miracle,  and  a  very  different  sort  of  miracle  from  that  of 
the  infallibility  of  the  Church. 

In  the  latter,  at  least,  if  there  is  any  miracle,  the  faithful  under- 
stand that  this  miracle  is  absolutely  necessary,  and  implied  in  the 
very  notion  of  the  Church — without  infallibility  in  the  Church, 
there  is  no  Church.  But  they  do  not  understand  so*readily  the 
necessity  of  tliis  miracle  for  the  Pope  alone,  because  the  Church 
can  be  conceived  perfectly  well  without  the  personal  and  separate 
infallibility  of  the  Pope.  The  infallibility  of  the  Church  will 
always  suflBce  for  everything,  as  it  always  has  suflBced. 

The  faithful  know  very  well  that  in  this  grand  and  universal 
testimony  of  the  Church,  the  Pope  is  a  witness,  the  chief  witness, 
the  witness  of  the  principal  and  supreme  Church,  that  Church 
which,  occupying  the  central  position,  is  in  communication  with 
all  the  others,  as  all  the  others  should  be  in  communication 
with  it. 


APPENDIX.  337 

But,  until  uow,  the  faithful  have  not  believed  that  the  Pope  was 
the  sole  witness  in  the  Church. 

Thereafter,  pronouncing  alone,  he  would  be  so,  whenever  he 
liked. 

XIV.  It  is  Sfdd,  and  well  said—  Ubi  Fetrus,  ibi  Ecclesia.  A 
grand  saying  of  St.  Ambrose.    But  it  is  strangely  abused  at  times. 

To  hear  certain  writers,  whose  exaggerations  are  certainly  not 
pleasing  either  to  the  Pope  or  to  scarcely  any  one,  one  might  sup- 
pose that  the  Pope  constituted,  by  himself,  the  whole  Church. 
No.  The  Pope  is  the  head  of  the  Church ;  he  is  not  the  whole 
Church.  The  word  Church  is  a  collective  word,  not  to  be  ap- 
plied to  any  one  separate  individuality  whatever.  The  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ  has  for  its  necessary  head  the  Pope,  and  there  is 
no  Church  of  Christ  without  the  Pope :  that  would  be  a  body 
without  a  head.  But  the  Pope  is  not  and  has  never  pretended  to 
be  the  whole  Church.  The  true  and  legitimate  practical  use  of 
this  saying  is  this,  that  in  the  divisions  produced  by  heresies  and 
schisms,  in  order  to  learn  where  the  Church  is,  w^e  must  see 
where  the  Pope  is.  It  is  thus  that  we  are  sure  that  the  Russian 
Church,  the  Anglican  Church,  are  not  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ, 
because  they  have  not  the  Pope  with  them  ;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  is  the  true  Church,  be- 
cause it  recognizes  the  successor  of  Peter  as  its  chief—  Ubi  Petrus^ 
ibi  Ecclesia.  ' 

Let  us.  Gentlemen,  not  have  the  appearance,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
faithful,  of  putting  asunder,  by  a  definition  that  would  be  an  oc- 
casion of  disturbance  to  them,  what  should  not  be  put  asunder— 
the  Pope  and  the  Episcopate. 

Certain  theological  schools  have,  for  some  time,  been  equally 
in  the  wrong  on  this  point,  in  opposite  directions  :  one  set  wish- 
ing to  separate  the  Pope  from  the  Episcopate ;  the  other,  the 
Episcopate  from  the  Pope. 

The  Church  is  a  living  body — Corpus.  That  is  the  word  con- 
tinually repeated  by  Saint  Paul,  who  employs  it  to  show  in  this 
mystical  body  the  relations  of  the  head  and  the  members,  and 
the  harmony  of  the  entire  organism. 

15 


338  APPENDIX. 

The  Pope  is  the  head,  the  visible  Chief  of  the  Church. 

But  if  we  put  the  head  on  one  side  and  the  body  on  the  other, 
^Yhe^e  will  be  the  life  ? 

The  Church  is  a  building — JEdificaho  Ecclesiam  meam;  v;hy 
seek  to  detach  the  foundation  from  the  building,  the  building 
from  the  foundation  ? 

The  Church  is  built  upon  the  rock.  Yes  ;  but  on  the  rock 
there  is  the  buildiug,  and  tlie  rock  is  only  the  foundation  by 
reason  of  its  connection  vrith  the  building — Super  lianc  petram 
cedificabo  Ecclesiam  meam. 

There  are  those  that  say :  The  rock  is  everything.  Plainly 
not.     The  head  is  not  the  whole  body. 

It  is  the  foundation  ;  it  is  not  the  whole  building. 

The  building,  without  the  foundation,  vv  ould  fall ;  the  founda- 
tion, without  the  building,  would  be  the  foundation  of  nothing. 

No  separation,  then,  Gentlemen  ;  neither  Germanist  nor 
Komanist,  neither  Galilean  nor  Ultramontanist — either  on  dog- 
matic definitions  or  on  anything  else ;  Christ  would  not  have  it 
so.     Uiium  sint — "  that  they  all  may  be  one." 

Let  us  leave  the  old,  vain  quarrels. 

The  faithful  understand  only  the  Church  with  its  supreme 
Head,  and  the  Head  with  the  Church. 

This  conception  of  the  Church,  moreover,  is  in  no  wise  detri- 
mental to  the  divine  authority  and  the  supreme  initiative  of  the 
Koman  Pontiif. 

Successor  of  Peter — Vicar  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  whom  dwelleth 
the  fulness  of  apostolic  power — Chief  of  all  the  bishops — Pontiff 
of  the  principal  see  in  which  all  other  sees  maintain  their  unity — 
universal  Pastor,  not  merely  of  the  sheep  but  also  of  the  shep- 
herds— mouth  of  the  Church — key-stone  of  Catholicity. 

Such  is  the  Pope,  such  the  head  of  the  Teaching  Church. 

And,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Bishops  :  Successors  of  the  Apos. 
ties — Judges  and  Teachers,  with  whom  Jesus  Christ  is  always 
until  the  end  of  the  world — Pastors  of  the  peoples,  under  the 
superior  and  chief  authority  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff:  instituted 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  rule  the  Church  of  God  and  to  teach  all  nations. 


APPENDIX.  339 

Sucli  is  the  all-poNverful  econom}^  of  that  mj'sterious  and  living 
unitj'  of  the  Church,  in  'which  everything  is  divine  because  every- 
thing is  one,  where  the  arrangement  and  the  correspondence  are 
such  tliat  each  part,  v/hen  it  is  in  its  place,  shares  in  the  might 
of  the  -whole. 

No ;  let  us  not  astonish  the  faithful  by  bringing  our  criticism 
to  bear  on  this  divine  constitution ;  let  us  not  dig  about  these 
sacred  foundations ;  let  no  one  put  asunder  what  Jesus  Christ 
hath  made  to  remain  eternally  united. 

Ah  !  ma}'  we  rather  gather  more  closely  than  ever  around  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff  in  veneration,  obedience,  and  love,  and  put 
far  away  from  us  even  the  shadow  of  dissension!  May  we  all, 
in  generous  self-forgetfulness,  sacrificing  to  the  Church  our  per- 
sonal prejudices,  labor  with  one  mind  for  the  preservation  of  that 
peace  and  that  unity  in  which  God  dwelleth !  Then,  but  then 
only,  shall  we  offer  to  the  world  the  spectacle  of  that  great 
"  army  tcith  banners,^^  of  which  the  Scriptures  speak ;  an  army 
"  terrible,"  because  it  is  set  in  array  beneath  its  banners. 

Then,  too,  by  our  example  no  less  than  b}''  our  teaching,  shall 
we  bring  to  imperilled  society  that  aid  from  God  for  which  it  is 
looking,  anc>  that  last  hope  of  life  for  w^hich  it  is  calling  aloud. 

XV.  These,  Gentlemen,  are  theological  details  that  I  should 
have  been  glad  to  avoid  ;  I  have  designed  them  for  the  clergy, 
but  they  will  also  fall  upon  the  highwaj^,  upon  stony  ground  and  ■ 
among  thorns,  among  chattering  birds,  among  the  unfriendly  and 
the  ignorant.  But  let  no  one  be  surpiised  at  the  opinions  agita- 
ted in  our  schools.  This  diversity,  these  discussions  among  theo- 
logians, are  a  proof  of  liberty,  in  duMis  Ubertas,  and  also  of  charity, 
in  omnibus  caritas.  But  when  w^e  must  come  to  necessary  deci- 
sions, about  which  there  should  be  agreement,  in  necessariis  iini- 
ias,  then  we  are  no  longer  philosophers  disputing ;  we  are  doc- 
tors teaching,  and  witnesses  giving  testimony. 

It  is  our  duty  to  undertake  an  exhausting  labor  in  reflection, 
in  the  drawing  of  distinctions,  in  the  weighing  of  scruples,  before 
iaj'ing  any  burden  upon  your  minds  or  your  consciences.  O, 
flippant  men  who  sneer  at  toil  entered  into  for  you,  you  do  not 


340  APPENDIX. 

complain  of  the  minute  calculations  of  astronomers  and  nayiga- 
tors,  before  you  embark,  nor  of  the  investigations  of  the  judge 
that  holds  your  fate  in  his  hands.  Theologians  also  merit  your 
respect  in  investigations  that  concern  your  souls  and  the  truth. 
Do  not  sneer,  and  do  not  worry.  Instead  of  listening  at  the  doors 
of  our  schools,  enter  that  marvellous  temple  of  Christian  truth, 
from  which  nineteen  centuries  have  not  torn  a  single  stone,  the 
temple  in  which  you  find  that  unique  combination  of  the  divine 
presence  and  of  united  testimony  which  is  called  the  Church  ;  re- 
sembling, in  some  sort,  the  luminous  system  of  the  world,  which 
is  composed  of  one  chief  luminary,  of  countless  stars,  and  of  one 
and  the  same  light  spread  over  all. 

In  the  brightness  of  an  unclouded  noon,  the  light  seems  to  come 
from  a  single  source  ;  but  if  tlie  night  grows  dark,  we  see  count- 
less stars  in  the  firmament  for  man's  guidance,  thousands  of  rays 
blending  upon  his  head  in  one  single  eff"ulgence. 

XVI.  I  would  fain  sum  up  this  long  series  of  questions,  and 
express  clearly  the  state  of  my  soul. 

We  have  our  contests  indeed — that  is  life  ! — but  upon  this  great 
question  of  the  Church  we  have  peace.  No  Catholic  doubts  the 
infallibility  of  the  Church  ;  just  as  no  one  doubts  the*  primacy  of 
the  Pope,  who  institutes  bishops,  convokes  Councils,  proposes  de- 
crees, confirms  decisions :  no  one  doubts  the  constancy,  the  una- 
nimity^ of  tradition  on  all  these  points,  for  nineteen  centuries. 
Every  believer,  after  having  read  the  Gospel,  consulted  history, 
hearkened  to  his  pastor,  pronounces  from  tlie  bottom  of  his  heart, 
Credo  Ecclesiam  unam,  sanctam,  catliolicam,  apostolicam.  In  fact, 
in  the  testimony  of  the  Bishops,  the  Popes,  the  Apostles,  and  of 
Christ,  there  is,  from  the  very  beginning,  an  infallible  harmony, 
into  which  God  himself  enters. 

All  at  once  some  few  persons  set  about  inquiring  in  whom  in- 
fallibility, in  this  Church,  originally  resides.  And  with  eyes  fixed 
upon  a  marvellous  fact,  they  commence  to  agitate  questions.  In  the 
presence  of  a  fact,  they  see  fit  to  stir  up  hypotheses.  In  presence 
of  a  solution,  they  put  in  question  the  elements  of  the  problem  ; 
and  a  cause  that  has  been  adjudicated,  terminated  by  happy  ac- 


APPENDIX.  341 

cord,  they  take  up,  revive,  and  rekindle !  Straightway,  as  soon 
as  the  problem  Is  enunciated,  the  enemy  awakes  and  the  faithful 
are  disconcerted,  the  East  checked,  Protestants  turned  back,  gov- 
ernments disturbed,  the  saddest  pages  of  the  history  of  the  past 
dragged  to  light,  the  bishops  saddened,  the  peace  of  souls 
compromised,  and  the  way  of  salvation  rendered  more  difficult. 
Wherefore  ?    In  what  interest  ?    With  what  gain  ? 

To-morrow,  vrhatever  might  be  the  coi^rse  adopted,  what  vrould 
happen?  That  which  was  not  discussed  would  be  discussed, 
what  was  forgotten  would  be  revived,  and  the  habit  of  discussion 
once  resumed — farewell  to  peace  ! 

No,  no !  AVe  are  not  going  to  assemble  to  substitute  division 
for  unanimity'-,  dispute  for  love  ! 

By  the  grace  of  God,  the  Church  of  France  has,  for  two  cen- 
turies, richl}^  deserved  to  be  released  from  all  antiquated  jeal- 
ousies. That  Church,  I  boldly  say,  has  been  and  will  ever  be  the 
heroine  and  the  martyr  of  Unity.  During  the  last  hundred 
years  especially,  there  has  not  been  a  branch  of  the  divine  tree 
better  united  to  the  trunk  and  the  root,  while  spreading  itself 
farther,  more  zealousl}^  across  all  boundaries :  no  branch  more 
Catholic,  no  branch  more  apostolic,  no  branch  more  Roman. 

Our  predecessors  died  upon  the  scaflbld,  that  the  unity  miglit 
not  be  broken;  they  accepted  exile  and  confiscation,  without 
yielding  either  to  the  oppression  of  the  people  or  the  tja-anny  of 
the  despot.  They  were  to  be  found  with  Pius  VI.  and  Pius  VII. 
upon  all  the  paths  of  exile,  in  the  fellowship  of  martyrdom.  It 
was  in  the  French  clergy  that  Pius  VII.  found  his  strongest  con- 
solation. The  Churches  of  the  United  States  were  begun  b}-- 
French  bishops.  French  bishops  have  never  wearied  in  defend- 
ing oppressed  Poland,  starving  Ireland,  the  down-trodden  East. 
Together  we  have  demanded  and  obtained  the  freedom  of  parents 
in  the  education  of  their  children  ;  together  we  have  defended 
the  freedom  of  religious  association,  the  freedom  of  charity,  the 
development  of  civilizing  missions.  The  whole  Church  is  in- 
debted to  France  for  the  Sisters  of  Charity,  tlie  Brethren  of  the 
Christian  Schools,  the  Work  of  the  Propagation  of  the  Faith  in 


342  APPENDIX. 

the  two  worlds,  the  Conferences  of  Saint  Vincent  de  Paul,  the 
Colleges  of  the  Jesuits  and  the  Dominicans,  the  Little  Sisters  of 
the  Poor,  and  all  that  incomparable  army  of  peace,  which,  like 
our  army  of  war,  is  the  first  in  the  world. 

For  twenty  years  the  Papal  See  has  been  attacked,  wounded, 
betrayed,  oppressed,  delivered  up  to  implacable  adversaries.  The 
French  bishops  have  defended,  served,  assisted,  loved,  exalted, 
consoled  it,  with  a  magnificent  movement  that  time  has  not 
weakened.  And  is  it  not  they,  too,  who  in  the  evil  days  through 
which  we  are  passing,  gave  the  first  impulse  to  that  touch- 
ing and  now  universal  work,  the  Peter's-pence  ?  Ah !  I  venture 
to  say  that  such  devotion  to  Rome  and  to  the  Catholic  world 
gives  the  Church  of  France  the  right  to  be  believed,  to  be  heard, 
w^hen  it  speaks  of  its  attachment  to  the  Holy  See  and  to  the  Vicar 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

What  do  I  say  !  So  great  is  the  enthusiasm  of  France  for  the 
centre  of  unity,  that  extreme  doctrines  cross  the  Alps  from  France, 
while  from  Rome  come  forth  moderation,  compromise,  prudence ; 
Rome  it  is  that  arrests  the  furia  francese^  and  refuses  to  push 
dogmas  to  excess.  So,  my  brethren,  be  not  uneasy !  Men  of 
faith,  be  not  troubled ! 

If  I  have  decided  upon  going  into  all  these  details  with  you 
and  in  public,  it  w^as  because  of  this  secret  instinct,  that  I  had 
rather  to  calm  agitated  minds  in  my  own  country  than  to  fore- 
stall objections  at  Rome.  I  am  convinced  that  no  sooner  shall 
I  have  touched  the  sacred  soil,  no  sooner  kissed  the  tomb  of  the 
Apostles,  than  I  shall  feel  myself  at  peace,  out  of  battle,  in  the 
midst  of  an  assembly  presided  over  by  a  Father  and  composed 
of  Brothers.  There  all  tumult  will  die  away,  all  foolhardy  med- 
dling cease,  all  imprudence  disappear,  the  winds  and  the  waves 
will  be  at  rest.  We  shall  think  of  the  saints  in  whose  seats  we 
are  sitting,  of  tlie  souls  that  we  are  to  answer  for  unto  God ;  we 
shall  think  of  that  God  who  sees  us  and  who  will  judge  us ;  w' e 
shall  think  of  the  Apostles,  we  shall  seem  to  see  them  still  in  the 
presence  of  the  w^orld  that  is  to  be  conquered,  and  the  Master 
that  is  to  be  hearkened  unto.     And  when  in  the  place  of  that 


APPENDIX.  343 

supreme  Master  of  hearts,  his  Vicar  upon  eartli  shall  repeat  to 
each  of  us,  "  My  brother,  lovest  thou  me  ?"  O  believe  that 
your  old  bishop  will  not  be  the  last  one  to  answer,  "  Father,  thou 
knowest  that  I  love  thee  !"  As  the  gentle  bishop  of  Geneva  said : 
"/?i  the  strife  of  love  for  tlie  Vicar  of  Jesus  Christ  I  have  not  permit- 
ted mj^self  to  be  overcome  by  any  one.  For  twenty  years  my  hair 
has  whitened,  my  hand  has  worn  itself  out  in  thy  service,  O 
Holy  Father,  God  knoweth  that  the  last  word  of  my  lips  and  the 
last  throb  of  my  heart  shall  be  given  to  the  Church  and  to  thee." 
Accept,  Gentlemen  and  beloved  fellow-laborers,  the  renewed 
assurance  of  my  deep  and  pious  regards. 

(fi  Felix,  Bisho]}  of  Orleans. 

Orleans,  November  I'ith : 
Feast  of  St.  Martin. 


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Date  Due 

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